Okuhara and reserve pair diverted to Dubai

The Nippon Badminton Association has published its list of players travelling to the BWF World Superseries Finals in Dubai next week and it includes three players who had been previously entered in a Grand Prix event the same week.  Recent Hong Kong Open runner-up Nozomi Okuhara followed on from the large set of withdrawals of Korean players from the U. S. Grand Prix event, where she is still listed as the top seed in women’s singles, and will apparently be competing in the Superseries Finals instead.  Accompanying Okuhara on the plane to Dubai is to be Japan’s #3 women’s doubles pair Naoko Fukuman / Kurumi Yonao, who had finished the Superseries regular season one rung below compatriots and final qualifiers Reika Kakiiwa / Miyuki Maeda.

Kakiiwa/Maeda are also absent from the lists of Japanese players bound for the Grand Prix event in California as well.  The Japanese contingent of 20 players for the U.S. event has apparently slimmed down to just over a dozen.  The BWF has yet to publish a full list of confirmed entries for the Superseries Finals in Dubai but the deadline for qualifiers to confirm their participation was purported to be last week, the day before the final standings were made public.