Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk-yiu faces Olympic champion as Badminton World Tour returns to Asia for first time in almost a year
- City’s second seed to face Viktor Axelsen as world tour begins three-week run in Bali
- Angus Ng and Vincent Wong also in action at Daihatsu Indonesia Masters
Top-class tour badminton returns to Asia for the first time in 10 months this week, and Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk-yiu will have his hands full in the opening round of the Daihatsu Indonesia Masters on Tuesday.
The city’s No 2 shuttler faces Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen, and will need to improve significantly from when the pair met in the Denmark Open last month, with Axelsen winning 21-9, 21-11 in Odense.
Axelsen, the world No 2, has been in great his form so far and is expected to meet Japan’s Kento Momota in the final of a tournament which also features Tokyo bronze winner and home favourite Anthony Ginting.
But Chen Long, the Tokyo Games silver medallist, will be missing, along with all players from China, for the first of three back-to-back events in Bali.
Hong Kong’s other two entrants in the men’s singles, Vincent Wong Wing-ki and Angus Ng Ka-long, also meet in the first round. With Ng, the city’s No 1, seeded eighth for the US$600,000 tournament at super 750 level.