Li/Liu scoop last spot for Dubai 2016

China’s Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen are officially the most recent qualifiers for the BWF World Superseries Finals in Dubai, as two reigning gold medallists from the Olympics and one from the Asian Games have all withdrawn.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) issued a press release this afternoon confirming that Japan Open champions and world #9 Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen (pictured) of China would be replacing the withdrawn Fu Haifeng / Zhang Nan.  The release also confirmed that Malaysia’s Vivian Hoo / Woon Khe Wei had indeed accepted the invitation to compete in the women’s doubles in Dubai in place of Indonesia’s Greysia Polii and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari.  Maheswari is set to undergo surgery on her knee, as reported in the Indonesian media this week.

Earlier this week, the Hong Kong press announced that Hu Yun had been invited to fill the spot left vacant by the withdrawn Chen Long.  Both Maheswari/Polii and Fu/Zhang had won Superseries titles in 2016 – both at the Singapore Open, in fact – but Li/Liu are the only ones among the replacements who have won a title this year.

Meanwhile, Hu Yun is the only ‘replacement’ who has played in the Superseries Finals before, as he competed in 2012, 2013, and 2015.  The addition of the two ‘rookie’ doubles pairs means that 23 of the 58 athletes in Dubai will be participating in the season-ender for the first time.

Photo: Raphael Sachetat / Badmintonphoto