Men’s doubles 12th seeds Choi Sol Gyu/Kim Won Ho and women’s doubles ninth seeds Benyapa Aimsaard/Nuntakarn Aimsaard are among three seeded competitors to withdraw from the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2023.

Kim however is in the mixed doubles competition with Jeong Na Eun.

The other seed to withdraw was men’s singles second seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, whose mother passed away earlier this month.

France’s Qi Xuefei was the only other player to withdraw; the Frenchwoman was due to face Yeo Jia Min in the first round.

Both Choi/Kim and the Aimsaard sisters had a bye in their opening assignments.

Axelsen in Action on Day 1

The 28th edition of the World Championships draws open its curtains at 9am tomorrow with Scotland’s Adam Hall/Julie Macpherson taking on India’s Rohan Kapoor/Sikki Reddy on Court 1 and Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei facing Hungary’s Vivien Sandorhazi on Court 2.

Shortly after, action begins on Courts 3 and 4 with Vinson Chiu/Jennie Gai (USA) versus Fabricio Farias/Jaqueline Lima (Brazil) and Adham Hatem Elgamal/Doha Hany (Egypt) against Israeli son-mother duo Misha and Svetlana Zilberman.

Among the stars in action during the day are home favourite Viktor Axelsen (against Nhat Nguyen), 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew (against Spanish veteran Pablo Abian), HS Prannoy (facing Kalle Koljonen) and last year’s runner-up Kunlavut Vitidsarn (facing Jonathan Matias). The blockbuster opener is expected to be former All England champion Lee Zii Jia against No.5 Jonatan Christie.

Feature Matches:

Court 1
Loh Kean Yew vs Pablo Abian
Viktor Axelsen vs Nhat Nguyen

Court 2
Nozomi Okuhara vs Nguyen Thuy Linh
Ng Tze Yong vs Zhao Jun Peng
Kidambi Srikanth vs Kenta Nishimoto

Court 3
HS Prannoy vs Kalle Koljonen
Rasmus Gemke vs Mark Caljouw

Court 4
Polina Buhrova vs Putri Kusuma Wardani
Job Castillo vs Ygor Coelho