BWF World Tour Finals 2018: Sindhu, Sameer in the full list of qualified players

The BWF World Tour Finals for the inaugural restructured season in 2018 will be held from December 12 to 16 at the Tianhe Gymnasium in Guangzhou, China. Top eight players (and pairs) across the five disciplines of Badminton will play for the season-ending glory in this tournament which takes place in over five days.

As far as the Indian interest is concerned, only two players have managed to qualify for the final showdown, just like the previous year. P.V. Sindhu & Sameer Verma will be in action in singles.

Women's Singles:

Silver Medalist and runner-up from last year's BWF Super Series Finals, P.V. Sindhu has qualified for the event for a third consecutive time. With the incredible Tai Tzu Ying winning nine titles this year, the top seed and World #1 is definitely the front-runner in women's singles category. Here is the complete list of the top eight women's singles players who have qualified for the finals:

1. Tai Tzu Ying (Chinese Taipei), 2. Nozomi Okuhara (Japan), 3. Akane Yamaguchi (Japan), 4. Chen Yufei (China), 5. Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand), 6. P.V. Sindhu (India), 7. Carolina Marin (Spain), 8. Michelle Li (Canada)

Sameer Verma (IND) has qualified for the first time

Men's Singles:

With players such as Kidambi Srikanth, H.S. Prannoy, B. Sai Praneeth failing to impress this year, it was Sameer Verma who made an impact by winning 3 titles - one Super 100 and two Super 300 World Tour events.

The World #16, Verma's consistent performance this year enabled him to qualify at the last moment when he defended his crown in Lucknow at the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships last week. Here is the complete list of the top eight Men's singles players who have qualified for the event :

1. Chou Tien Chen (Chinese Taipei), 2. Kento Momota (Japan), 3. Tommy Sugiarto (Indonesia), 4. Shi Yuqi (China), 5. Son Wan Ho (South Korea), 6. Kantaphon Wangcharoen (Thailand), 7. Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (Indonesia), 8. Sameer Verma (India)

Indian Badminton's struggle in doubles continues as just like the previous years, no pair from India has managed to qualify for the event.

Here is the list of all the pairs who will play for the total prize pool of USD 1.5 million :

Women's Doubles:

1.Mayu Matsumoto / Wakana Nagahara (Japan), 2. Misaki Matsutomo / Ayaka Takahashi or Yuki Fukushima / Sayaka Hirota (Japan*) 3. Greysia Polii / Apriyani Rahayu (Indonesia) 4. Jongkolphan Kititharakul / Rawinda Prajongjai (Thailand), 5. Lee So Hee / Shin Seung Chan (South Korea), 6. Gabriela Stoeva / Stefani Stoeva (Bulgaria), 7. Chen Qingchen / Jia Yifan (China) 8. Du Yue / Li Yinhui (China)

(*Only two players from each nation are allowed to play in the tournament.)

Men's Doubles:

1.Marcus Fernaldi Gideon / Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Indonesia), 2. Chen Hung Ling / Wang Chi-Lin (Chinese Taipei), 3. Liao Min Chun / Su Ching Heng (Chinese Taipei), 4. Han Chengkai / Zhou Haodong (China), 5. Kim Astrup/Anders Rasmussen (Denmark), 6. Mohammad Ahsan / Hendra Setiawan (Indonesia), 7. Hiroyuki Endo / Yuta Watanabe (Japan), 8. Li Junhui / Liu Yuchen (China)

Mixed Doubles:

1. Zheng Siwei / Huang Yaqiong (China), 2. Yuta Watanabe / Arisa Higashino (Japan), 3. Dechapol Puavaranukroh / Sapisiree Taerattanachai (Thailand), 4. Chang Peng Soon / Goh Liu Ying (Malaysia), 5. Wang Yilyu / Huang Dongping (China), 6. Hafiz Faizal / Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja (Indonesia), 7. Goh Soon Huat / Shevon Jemie Lai (Malaysia), 8 Marcus Ellis / Lauren Smith (England)