Irish No 1 Scott Evans has drawn top seed and world No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia for his opening match at the World Badminton Championships starting in Guangzhou, China on Monday August 5.
That makes it third time unlucky for Evans – at both the 2011 World Championships and last year’s London Olympics, he faced then world No 1 Lee Dan of China in his opening matches.
He has already played Wei tear, losing to him 16-21, 5-21 in the opening round of the Dutch Open last April. Since then, the Dubliner has struggled with injury and was forced to drop out of the quarter-finals of the Denmark International in June.
In the women’s singles, Chloe Magee faces Pai Hsaio Ma of Chinese Taipei, a player she pushed hard when they last met in the second round of the Thailand Open in June. The winner will play No 7 seed Wang Shixian from China.
Although Asian players look certain to dominate overall, European players have their best chance in the mixed doubles. In an all-European opener, Chloe and Sam Magee will play Jorrit de Ruiter and Samantha Borning from the Netherlands, the pair that won the Irish Open title last December in Baldoyle.
The Irish team will prepare for the world championships training at the Irish High Performance centre in Marino Institute of Education over the next week. There will be addition sparring in the form of former Chinese national team player Zhu Min. Scott Evans will complete preparations in Denmark with the Danish national team; Chloe, Same Magee will travel to Scotland to train with the top British players. The players depart on the 4th August.
