Saina grouped with Schenk and Baun in World Superseries Finals

Shenzhen, China - Saina Nehwal has been grouped alongside top non-Chinese contenders Juliane Schenk, Tine Baun and Ratchanok Intanon for the BWF World Superseries Finals that begins on Wednesday.

The World Superseries Finals, to which the top eight Superseries-ranked players are invited, will bring down the curtains on the Superseries tour. Saina will be aiming to win the Finals for the first time. Olympic champion Li Xuerui finds herself in Group A with Asian Games champion Wang Shixian. The top two from each group will progress to the semifinals.

In Men’s Singles, world No.1 Lee Chong Wei finds himself alongside relative lightweights Hu Yun, Boonsak Ponsana and Du Pengyu. Of the three, he will be most wary of Du Pengyu, who almost pulled the rug from under his feet in the Denmark Open final.

Group B has his biggest opponent, Chen Long, and others like Kenichi Tago (Japan), his Malaysian compatriot Daren Liew, and Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus.

The toughest group in all the categories is Group A of Men’s Doubles, where three of the four Olympic semifinalists have been grouped: Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng (China), Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen (Denmark), and Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong (Malaysia). The fourth team, Kim Ki Jung/Kim Sa Rang, are the Asian champions!

Here is the complete list:

Men’s Singles:

Group A: Lee Chong Wei, Hu Yun, Boonsak Ponsana, Du Pengyu

Group B: Chen Long, Kenichi Tago, Daren Liew, Hans-Kristian Vittinghus

Women’s Singles:

Group A: Li Xuerui, Wang Shixian, Sung Ji Hyun, Eriko Hirose

Group B: Juliane Schenk, Saina Nehwal, Tine Baun, Ratchanok Intanon

Men’s Doubles:

Group A: Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong; Kim Ki Jung/Kim Sa Rang; Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng; Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen

Group B: Hiroyuki Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa; Hong Wei/Shen Ye; Bodin Issara/Maneepong Jongjit; Hoon Thien How/Tan Wee Kiong

Women’s Doubles:

Group A: Shizuka Matsuo/Mami Naito; Tian Qing/Zhao Yunlei; Duanganong/Kunchala; Poon Lok Yan/Tse Ying Suet

Group B: Eom Hye Won/Jang Ye Na; Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang; Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter-Juhl; Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi

Mixed Doubles:

Group A: Xu Chen/Ma Jin; Tontowi Ahmad/Lilyana Natsir; Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam; Yoo Yeon Seong/Jang Ye Na

Group B: Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying; Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei; Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen; Muhammad Rijal/Debby Susanto