Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships: Huang Di/Zhou Haodong Stun Top Seed in Men’s Doubles

The 2024 Hong Kong Badminton Open kicked off at the Hung Hom Stadium on September 10, with China’s Huang Di/Zhou Haodong making a stunning debut in the men’s doubles competition. The duo eliminated the top seed Astrup/Rasmussen from Denmark with a 2:0 victory, advancing to the second round.

This year’s Hong Kong Open, a World Badminton Federation Tour Super 500 event, features a total of 246 athletes from 18 countries and regions. The main events on the first day included the preliminaries of various events and the first round of men’s and women’s doubles. The Chinese team sent five pairs to participate, with four pairs advancing to the next round.

In the men’s doubles, Huang Di/Zhou Haodong secured a 21:15, 25:23 win against Astrup/Rasmussen. They will face Chinese Taipei’s Lin Bingwei/Su Jingheng in the second round. Although Huang Di/Zhou Haodong played together for the first time at the Korea Open last month, they showed remarkable chemistry and determination.

The other three pairs of Chinese men’s doubles combinations, Chen Boyang/Guo Ruohan, Xie Haonan/Zeng Weihan, and Chen Xujun/Liu Yi, also defeated their opponents and advanced successfully.

Notable absentees from the tournament include the world’s No. 1 men’s singles player Shi Yuqi of China, the Paris Olympic women’s singles champion An Se-young from South Korea, and Chinese women’s singles star Chen Yufei.

The first round of various competitions will be fully launched on September 11. In the men’s singles competition, Paris Olympic champion and Danish star Viktor Axelsen will face off against Hong Kong player Ng Ka Long.