Badminton Day 1 Preview: Shuttlers take off

BEIJING, August 8) -- Most of the big favorites in Badminton Men's and Women's Singles are not playing in the first round of competition on Saturday, August 9. Defending Men's Singles Olympic champion and seventh seed Taufik Hidayat, Top seed Lin Dan, Malaysia's second-seeded Lee Chong Wei and former World No. 1 Peter Hoeeg Gade will not participate in Badminton's first day of competition. Similarly, the world's top two Women's Singles players Xie Xingfang and Lu Lan, and 2004 Olympic champion Zhang Ning, are all not competing in the first round.

Some of the fourteen players who will participate in day one of Men's Singles are ranked in the top 25 in the world. World No. 13 Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland, bronze winner of the 2008 European Badminton Championships, will meet Raul Must of Estonia.

German player World No. 24 Marc Zwiebler will play Evans Scott from Ireland. Zwiebler won the 2008 Polish International Open Championships and finished second in the 2007 Yonex Irish International Championships.

World No. 20 Andrew Smith from Great Britain will confront Petr Koukal of the Czech Republic.

The Women's Singles event has more than double the number of men's players, with thirty shuttlers competing in round one. Current World No. 11 Jaeyoun Jun from the Republic of Korea, winner of the 2008 Yonex German Open, will play Poland's Kamila Augustyn.

Yip Pui Yin from Hong Kong, the current World No. 12, will compete with World No. 14 Great Britain's Tracey Hallam.

German player Juliane Schenk, who claimed bronze at the 2008 European Badminton Championships and won Women's Singles in the Polish International Open Championship, will meet Indonesia's Maria Kristin Yulianti, who recently finished second in the 2008 Indonesia Super Series.

India's Saina Nehwal, the current World No. 15, will play Ella Karachkova of Russia.

World No. 16 Bulgaria's Petya Nedelcheva, runner-up of the Polish International Open Championships, will compete with Sweden's Sara Persson.

World No. 20 Eriko Hirose of Japan and No. 24 Xing Aiying of Singapore will also participate in tomorrow's competition.

Saturday's matches will begin at 9:00 a.m. (UTC/GMT +8) at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium.