After brief injury layoffs, world No.1s Viktor Axelsen and An Se Young return to action at the Kumamoto Masters Japan 2023, the new Super 500 event on the HSBC BWF World Tour.

Citing a left foot injury, Axelsen gave a walkover in the second round of the VICTOR Denmark Open and then retired after the first game of the first round at the YONEX French Open.

An Se Young, who has had an astounding season with 10 titles, needed treatment for a right knee injury in the Asian Games gold medal match that she won. She subsequently missed the European leg.

Axelsen takes on Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo in the opening round and is in the same quarter as French Open champion Jonatan Christie and Ng Tze Yong.

An Se Young faces Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po and has a potential second round against Gao Fang Jie. The two big names in her half are Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei and three-time world champion Carolina Marin.

Another player who has lately battled injury troubles, Malaysia’s Pearly Tan, returns with Thinaah Muralitharan as they face Lee Yu Lim/Shin Seung Chan.

Meanwhile, Kento Momota, who won the Korea Masters 2023 on Sunday, made the main draw after winning two qualifying matches on Tuesday. Momota beat Shesar Hiren Rhustavito 21-19 23-21 and Nachakorn Pusri 21-13 21-8 and will take on Loh Kean Yew in the opening round.

Highlights

New combination Rahmat Hidayat and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo won their qualifying match against Chiang Chien-Wei/Wu Hsuan-Yi to earn a place in the main draw against Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin.

With the exception of Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto, the Indonesians are in full strength in the men’s doubles draw, with the likes of Muhammad Shohibul Fikri/Bagas Maulana, Pramudya Kusumawardana/Yeremia Rambitan, Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan and Leo Rolly Carnando/Daniel Marthin.

China have fielded a couple of relative unknowns in the women’s doubles draw. Apart from established pairs like Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan, Li Wen Mei/Liu Xuan Xuan, Zhang Shu Xian/Zheng Yu and rising stars Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning, China have Keng Shu Liang/Zhang Chi and Li Yi Jing/Luo Xu Min in the main draw.

World Junior Championships silver medallists Francesca Corbett/Allison Lee, promoted to the women’s doubles main draw, face Korea Masters runners-up Rui Hirokami/Yuna Kato. Allison Lee also made the main draw in mixed doubles with Presley Smith.

Results