World Badminton Championships 2017: Top 5 female contenders

Nozomi Okuhara

Okuhara

Nozomi Okuhara knows the art of peaking at the right time. A shoulder injury had pinned the Japanese down towards the end of the 2016 season and she could not back up the bronze she won at the Rio Olympics.

Few months on, she is now very much looking as the lethal player who won the World Superseries Finals in 2015 and the All England Championships in 2016.

She gave a strong testimony to that when she annihilated Carolina Marin en route to winning the Australian Open Superseries this June. Riding high on that success, the seventh seed is coming into this premier global event as one of the top contenders.

After a third round meeting with her talented compatriot Aya Ohori, who won the US Open, she has a chance of squaring off against none other than Marin again.

The outcome of that blockbuster match, should it happen, will be a big indicator of the fortunes of either player in this World Championships.