KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The 2019 Badminton World Championships will serve as a proving ground for China's shuttlers ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, after the draw was made at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) headquarters here on Monday.
The electronic draw lined up a total of 383 shuttlers who will contest this year's championships held in Basel, Switzerland.
Among the top players scheduled to face-off in the first round of the men's singles include China's Lin Dan, who has been paired against Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam.
The women's singles will see 16 seeded entries receiving an automatic bye to the second round, including world No. 1 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, as well as China's top women's singles shuttlers Chen Yufei, Han Yue, He Bingjiao and Cai Yanyan.
BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said the Chinese team had a strong line-up of players, adding that he expected the country's shuttlers to bag multiple medals over the course of the tournament.
"I think the Chinese team, as usual, will be doing great. They have a fantastic team, all the time being pressured by the other countries," Lund told Xinhua.
"I think it's fascinating to see a discipline like the women's singles, where China has dominated. They still have fantastic players and I think China has a good chance to take medals, and maybe even win it," he added.
Missing from this year's championships are three top singles contenders for the world title: 2017 champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and world No.2 Shi Yuqi of China in the men's singles, as well as defending women's singles champion Carolina Marin of Spain, all of whom pulled out of the championships due to injury.
Shi suffered an ankle injury at the Indonesia Open last month and has not been able to recover in time for Basel. He was runner-up to Kento Momota at the most recent World Championships in Nanjing, China.
