The final Super 1000 of the season is here!

Read these intriguing facts about VICTOR China Open 2024.

• Ten former winners are competing.
• One of them is Lee So Hee, who with old partner Chang Ye Na, is one of two non-Chinese pairs to win women’s doubles in the last 32 years. The other duo are Ayaka Takahashi/Misaki Matsutomo.
• Overall, the host nation have missed out on the title in this department on just four of 32 occasions.
• Lee, and Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang, are the only top seeds to have experienced glory.
• Liang/Wang stand to emulate Huang Zhanzhong/Jiang Xin, the last home tandem to retain their men’s doubles crown in 1995.
• It’s the single category China don’t have the most titles in, Indonesia lead on 10.
• Men’s singles No.1 Shi Yu Qi is waiting to qualify for a final, with two semifinals out of six appearances being his best result.
• China Open is one of the very few competitions, and the last among the current Super 1000s women’s singles second seed Tai Tzu Ying is yet to win.
• The Chinese Taipei star lost a final in 2019 to Carolina Marin.
• China are going through a mini-drought in the discipline, with Li Xue Rui’s 2015 success their latest. Seeds Wang Zhi Yi (3) and Han Yue (6) are their best bets this edition.
• Brothers Jalani and Razif Sidek are the only Malaysians to win men’s doubles (1989). With Paris 2024 bronze medallists Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik sitting out, seventh seeds Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin are their biggest hope.
• The 1989 result remains their solitary triumph across the three doubles disciplines.
• A successful title defence will see Viktor Axelsen become the maiden European to win men’s singles more than once.
• It will also make the Dane the first since Chen Long in 2013 to win the category in consecutive years.
• Five teams have seeds in categories they’ve never won – Thailand in men’s singles, Indonesia in women’s singles, Chinese Taipei in women’s singles and men’s doubles, Malaysia in women’s doubles and Hong Kong China in mixed doubles.

Standout stat: Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms in 2005 were the final pair not from China, Indonesia or Korea to ace mixed doubles.