World Tour points pressure reached a critical peak at the Japan Masters in Kumamoto on November 12, as players chase vital positions for the year-end finals in Hangzhou.
Running from December 9 to 13, the World Tour Finals will feature the top eight qualifiers in each of the five individual categories, alongside automatic berths reserved for this year’s world champions.
China’s mixed doubles pairs hold half of the top eight spots in the current standings, led by Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping with 103,230 points.
Feng and Huang sit comfortably at the top of the standings as the only pair to exceed 100,000 points, securing their qualification well ahead of the Kumamoto rounds.
Guo Xinwa and Chen Fanghui, Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin, and Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi hold the third, fourth, and sixth positions respectively in the rankings.
Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Bøje have also secured their finals spot, alongside French pair Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue who qualified automatically as world champions.
Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang booked their ticket to Hangzhou by winning the world title, joined by Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin alongside South Korea’s Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae.
Chinese duo Chen Boyang and Liu Yi entered the Kumamoto event ranked seventh in the tour standings, but suffered a first-round exit.
Malaysian pair Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik and Indonesian pair Fikri and Maulana also exited in the opening round, leaving eighth and tenth places vulnerable.
Danish pair Rasmus Kjær and Frederik Søgaard advanced to the quarterfinals, keeping the race for the final qualifying berths wide open ahead of Hong Kong.
Akane Yamaguchi, Wang Zhiyi, Chen Yufei, and Pusarla V. Sindhu have locked down their qualifications in the women’s singles, joining world champion An Se-young.
Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan secured their ticket in women’s doubles, alongside South Korean world champions Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee.
French player Alex Lanier qualified directly in men’s singles as the world champion, leaving the remaining seven spots undecided while China’s leading men’s singles players rested.
Keep reading
