The six players who
booked their place in the 2010 Thomas & Uber Badminton Cups will
face a difficult task when the event scheduled for the Putra Stadium in
Bukit Jalil, Malaysia kicks off in May as it got drawn together with
host Malaysia and Japan in Group B during the week.
Nigeria secured the
right to represent Africa in the Thomas Cup, alongside South Africa
which came second and will be competing in the Uber’s event, when it
emerged African champions at the Badminton Championship in Kampala,
Uganda, last month. The Nigeria team grabbed 14 out of the 16 titles
available in the 10-day continental tournament.
Nigerians are minnows
Already, Badminton
Association of Malaysia (BAM) secretary-general Ganga Rao, has written
off Nigeria’s chances of scaling the hurdles in the tournament.
Replying to
question on a Malaysian National News Agency, Bernama.com, Rao whose
country hopes to end their 16-year Cup drought, said Malaysia could be
assured of the quarterfinals since Nigerians are minnows in the group.
“Either Malaysia or
Japan will top Group B and both teams will easily qualify for the
quarterfinals because the third team in the group is minnows, Nigeria.
We’ll face stiffer tests in the quarterfinals,” he said.
Apart from Nigeria,
other teams competing for the Thomas Cup include defending champions
and top seeded China, who are in Group A with South Korea (5th seed)
and Peru (10th seed).
Group C comprises
Denmark (4th seed), Germany (8th seed) and Poland (9th seed) while
Group D pools Indonesia (2nd seed), India (7th seed) and Australia
(12th seed).
Only two top teams
from four groups will move to the next knockout stage of the sport’s
prestigious men’s team event to determine the semi-finalists.
Meanwhile, South
Africa is slugged in Group D with Korea and India while Japan, Russia
and Germany are pooled against one another in Group C.
China will do battle with Malaysia and USA in Group A with Indonesia, Denmark and Australia doing same in B.
A different format
This year’s edition
will see a revised format used for the competition with the
introduction of the two-stage, two-draw format where only the top two
teams from each group will progress to the knock-out stage – the
quarterfinals.
Previously all
three teams from each group (four groups) progressed to the next stage.
At the knock-out stage, a fresh draw will be held to decide the ties.
Thomas Cup
(Group) A: China, Korea, Peru;
Group B: Malaysia, Japan, Nigeria;
Group C: Denmark, Germany, Poland;
Group D: Indonesia, India, Australia
Uber Cup:
(Group) A: China, Malaysia, USA;
B: Indonesia, Denmark, Australia:
C: Japan, Russia, Germany;
D: Korea, India, South Africa.
Leave a Reply