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The BWF World Tour continues as we reach this year's Toyota Thailand Open.
13/05/25 08:41
Badminton Photo - Yves Lacroix

Although not all of the world's top players have chosen to participate in this year's tournament, it's still a star-studded lineup featuring names like Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Ardianto, Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Chou Tien Chen, and Chen Yu Fei, just to name a few. Additionally, several top European players are also competing, including second-seeded Anders Antonsen.

Already in the qualification rounds, we have two European men's singles players: Julien Carragi from Belgium and Joakim Oldorff from Finland. Both face tough opponents in their first qualification round matches. Carragi is up against young Malaysian player Justin Hoh, currently ranked 45th in the world. Carragi himself is ranked 51st and has had a difficult start to 2025, so he’ll be looking to bounce back in Thailand. Joakim Oldorff, who surprisingly lost in the quarterfinals of the European Championships to Aria Dinata a month ago, hopes to carry over his strong form from last week's Taipei Open. He faces Ayush Shetty from India. The two met at last year's Hylo Open, where Shetty convincingly won in straight sets. The winners of these two matches will face each other for a spot in the main draw.

In the main draw, we see the return of Rasmus Gemke, who hasn’t played a tournament match since he was forced to withdraw against Joakim Oldorff at this year’s European Championships. In the first round, Gemke faces Jia Heng Jason Teh, currently ranked 23rd in the world, who has beaten Gemke in both of their meetings earlier this year at the Indonesia Masters. That match was a close battle ending 22-20, 17-21, 20-22 in Teh’s favor, so a rematch is highly anticipated on Wednesday.

Second-seeded Anders Antonsen faces Wang Tzu Wei from Chinese Taipei in the first round. The two have met eight times before, with their head-to-head record standing at 4-4. In their most recent encounter at this year’s All England, Wang won decisively 21-13, 21-10. Antonsen described it as one of those days where everything went Wang’s way, and he himself struggled to find a way through. He also characterized Wang’s game as “weird on court” with “some unorthodox strokes.” We'll see if Antonsen can find a better answer this time around.

The final European in the men's singles draw is Nhat Nguyen, who hasn't played a tournament match since his quarterfinal exit at the European Championships to eventual winner Alex Lanier. In the first round, he faces India’s Lakshya Sen. They haven’t played each other since 2021, and Nguyen is still looking for his first win over the Indian player.

In the women's singles, there is European representation from Neslihan Arin and Line Christophersen. Christophersen will play Busanan Ongbamrungphan from Thailand. The head-to-head between them is 1-1.
Neslihan Arin will face Malvika Bansod from India. The two have never played before, but it will be a tough challenge for Arin, currently ranked 63rd in the world, against Bansod, who is ranked 23rd.

In men's doubles, the Danish pair William Kryger Boe and Christian Faust Kjær will take on the home pair Chaloempon Charoenkitamorn and Worrapol Thongsa-NGA. The French duo Julien Maio and William Villeger are also in the main draw, but they face a big challenge in the first round against Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.

Julien Maio is also playing mixed doubles with Lea Palermo. They are scheduled to face Indonesia’s Jafar Hidayatullah and Siti Ramadhanti tomorrow.

Good luck to all the players who have traveled to Thailand.
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Written by
Anders Hansen