Withdrawals of the top two men’s doubles seeds – Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang and Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen – have left world champions Kang Min Hyuk/Seo Seung Jae and Indonesians Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto the pairs to beat at DAIHATSU Japan Open 2024.

Kang/Seo return with something to prove after losing in the second round to Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan last year while Alfian/Ardianto will hope to do better than their semifinal defeat to Olympic champions Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin.

Alfian/Ardianto, now occupying Position 1 in the draw because of the Seed Withdrawal Movement, open their campaign on Tuesday against China’s Xie Hao Nan/Zeng Wei Han. Kang/Seo play Supak Jomkoh/Kittinupong Kedren a day later.

Withdrawals and promotions in other disciplines are as follows.

Withdrawals:

Men’s singles

1. Viktor Axelsen (second seed)
2. Kunlavut Vitidsarn (fourth seed)
3. Jonatan Christie (fifth seed)
4. Li Shi Feng (seventh seed)
5. Rasmus Gemke

Women’s singles

1. Gregoria Mariska Tunjung (fourth seed)
2. Ratchanok Intanon

Women’s doubles

1. Chen Qing Chen/Zheng Yu (fifth seeds)
2. Prinda Pattanawaritthipan/Atitaya Povanon

Mixed doubles

1. Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yu Jung (top seeds)
2. Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai (fifth seeds)
3. Reginald Lee/Ng Tsz Yau

Promotions:

Men’s singles

1. Chi Yu Jen
2. Jeon Hyeok Jin
3. Sathish Kumar Karunakaran
4. Arnaud Merkle

Women’s singles

1. Manami Suizu
2. Polina Buhrova

Men’s doubles

1. Kazuki Shibata/Naoki Yamada
2. Liu Kuang Heng/Yang Po Han

Mixed doubles

1. Linden Wang/Eva Wang
2. Chiu Hsiang Chieh/Lin Jhih Yun
3. Liu Kuang Heng/Jheng Yu Chieh

Click here to view the updated draw.

DAIHATSU Japan Open 2024 starts tomorrow, with the first match scheduled at 8am Kuala Lumpur time (UTC +8).