New Venue, New Champions?

That remains to be seen, but what we do know is that all five reigning Hong Kong Open champions will return to the Pearl of the Orient to fight for title retention. They will not, however, be making their way back to the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

Instead the badminton world's finest will take to the court at the Hong Kong Coliseum, a far larger venue that means that an extra day for qualifying and first round ties no longer needs to be facilitated.

Men's Singles

Lee Chong Wei, winner of the tournament's previous two editions, will begin his title defence against Spaniard Pablo Abian, the world number 23 whose search for form looks unlikely to improve come November 15th. Abian failed to advance past the opening rounds of the last two Super Series events in Denmark and France, a pair of disappointments, especially after he reached the third round of August's World Championships, scoring a victory over European number two Marc Zweibler on the way.

Chong Wei has been shaky in his own right, falling short at the final hurdle at three of his last four tournaments. After losing a pulsating World Championship final to Lin Dan, Lee lost two consecutive Super Series finals to Chen Long, though he put that ghost to bed in France, knocking his newest nemesis out at the semi-final stage.

If he is to face Chen Long once again it will be in the final, as the Chinese starts his first tournament as the world's second ranked player. Hsuan Yi Hsueh stands between him and the second round, where he will be reward with either of the two potential qualifiers who face-off in round 1.

Home hopes rely on Wong Wing Ki, who notched a famous victory over Lin Dan at the Danish Open. If he can find his way past Japan's Takuma Ueda he could square off with Lin once again, providing the World Champ beats Kashyap Parupalli.

First round games to watch:

[MAS] Lee Chong Wei (1) V [ESP] Pablo Abian
[CHN] Lin Dan (3) V [IND] Kashyap Parupalli
[GUA] Kevin Cordon V [DEN] Peter Gade (4)

Women's Singles

Despite having been toppled at the top of the rankings Wang Yihan goes into the tournament as the number one seed in the women's singles.

She will open up against Ayane Kurihara, though the young Japanese shuttler, taking her first crack in Hong Kong, should prove little fare for Yihan, looking to add to her Korean, Indonesian and Japanese titles thus far this season.

Her namesakes, Wang Shixian and Wang Xin, face testing tasks in their openers, matching up against talented youngsters Tai Tzu Ying and Sung Ji Hyun respectively. Sung, winner of September's Chinese Taipei Open, proved victorious the last time the pair met; that was in the Korea quarter-finals, the home player coming out on top in three games.

17 year old Tai broke into the top 20 for the first time in April and looks set to become a star of the future. Having captured her first international title in the US back in July the upstart remains on a high, especially after reaching the French Open semis, beating Wang Yihan on the way.

Saina Nehwal, the current holder of the Hong Kong trophy, will have the local crowd on her back as she starts against Chan Tsz Ka.

First round games to watch:

[GER] Juliane Schenk (6) V [JAP] Ai Goto
[CHN] Wang Xin (3) V [KOR] Sung Ji Hyun
[TPE] Tai Tzu Ying V [CHN] Wang Shixian (2)

Men's Doubles

Defending champions Ko Sung Hyun/Yoo Yeon Seong will enter the Coliseum as fourth seeds, battling Chen Hung Lin/Lin Yu Lang of Chinese Taipei, ranked a full 20 places behind them. Their road into the quarter-finals should not be too steep, as they would play either Michael Fuchs/Oliver Roth or a qualifying pair in round two.

Their Korean counterparts, Jung Jae Sung/Lee Yong Dae, open up against the Chinese pair of Hong Wei/Shen Ye, a combination they knocked out of the World Championships and hold a 3-0 record over.

Top seeds Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng have yet another Korean pair to challenge them in the first round. Kim Ki Jung/Shin Baek Chol may be way down in 48th place of the latest world rankings, though that may be deceptive. They have only played eight tournaments together since forming their partnership back in June, their results showing they are still working out the creases of their new line-up.

First round games to watch:

[MAS] Koo Kien Kieat/Tan Boon Heong (5) V [JAP] Hiroyuko Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa
[DEN] Mads Conrad-Petersen/Jonas Rasmussen V [IND] Alvent Yulianto Chandra/Hendra Aprida Gunawan (7)

Women's Doubles

With eleven consecutive tournament finals and gold from the Sudirman Cup to boot Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang look set to continue their domination of the women's doubles category. They took gold twelve months ago and begin their tilt at retention against Sandra Marinello/Birgit Michels, the rest of their potential opponents until the quarters providing similarly average.

Teammates Tian Qing/Zhang Yunlei should have no problems in defeating lowly Chan Tsz Ka/Cheung Ngan Yi, despite the having the crowd against them.

The field for the women's doubles event looks fairly poor on paper, with seven pairs from the home nation, alongside two from Macau, though world number threes Mizuki Fujii/Reika Kakiiwa will look to build on their success at the Bitburger Open.

First round games to watch:

[CHN] Wang Xiaoli/Yu Yang (1) V [GER] Sandra Marinello/Birgit Michels
[IND] Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa V [DEN] Christinna Pedersen/Kamilla Rytter Juhl (8)

Mixed Doubles

In-form Joachim Fischer/Christinna Pedersen will be looking to make it a hat-trick of Super Series final wins when they start up against Toby Ng/Grace Gao of Canada. The titles in Denmark and France went the way of the Danes and with Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Zieba the other seeds in their quarter of the draw they stand a good chance of making the semis, where their likely rivals will be Xu Chen/Ma Jin, though Hirokatsu Hashimoto/Mizuki Fujii look dangerous floaters.

Top seeds Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei have a Hollywood clash in the first round with Lee Yong Dae/Ha Jung Eun, while Kim Ki Jung/Jung Kyung Eun and Chris Adcock/Imogen Bankier are also in the top five ties of what is expected to be a highly contested category.

Adcock/Bankier have overtaken British rivals Nathan Robertson/Jenny Wallwork in the rankings as they start their first Super Series as seeds.

First round games to watch:

[CHN] Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei (1) V [KOR] Lee Yong Dae/Ha Jung Eun
[GBR] Chris Adock/Imogen Bankier (6) V [CHN] He Hanbin/Bao Yixin
[GBR] Robert Blair/Gabriel White V [CHN] Xu Chen/Ma Jin

Fischer And Pedersen Ensure Danish Joy

The home fans had something to cheer at the Yonex Denmark Open as Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen claimed mixed doubles gold in Odense.

The pair claimed their third Danish Open title thanks to a 22-20 21-16 win over Chinese fifth seeds Xu Chen and Ma Jin. The first game saw a number of intense rallies, neither side able to break into a lead of more than two points, as they battled for control in the topsy-turvy opener, the lead exchanging seven times before the Danes took it on their second game point.

Nothing changed at the beginning of the game two, until, that was, the scores reached eight apiece, the Chinese taking three straight points to open up an 11-8 lead at the mid-game interval. It didn't last long, as the scores were soon levelled after the break before the home stars, ranked fourth in the world, secured five consecutive points, the longest streak of the match. That was a mark from which the Danish partnership never looked back as they maintained their lead right the way through, claiming the championship with their first match point after Ma Jin hit long of the backline.

Lee Chong Wei put in an abject performance in the men's singles final, falling to China's Chen Long for the second time in as many matches.

Chen's 21-15 21-18 victory means that he has now won the last three Super Series tournaments, following his victories at the China Masters and Japan Open, taking his career total to four top tier titles.

Chong Wei's erroneous first game gave his Chinese opponent an easy ride, the top seed scoring just eight winners throughout the opener. That is not to discredit Chen, however, who worked hard from back to front, the six point margin a fair reflection of each players efforts.

The scoring tightened up during the second game, the lead moving from one player to another before Chen finally made his lead stick at 16-15, closing out the match to secure a record equalling third consecutive Super Series win, Chong Wei himself and Sony Dwi Kuncoro the only other players to achieve that feat.

Jung Jae Sung and Lee Yong Dae clinched the men's doubles crown after a physically demanding win over Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng of China, their second consecutive win over the top ranked pair. For a match between two partnerships of such calibre there were a lot of expectations from fans, and the match lived up to the hype, finishing 21-16 21-17 in favour of the Koreans.

The first game started at a frantic pace, both sides ruthless in their exposition of attacking badminton and only playing clears when absolutely necessary. Quite typically it was the Koreans who coped better with the flat exchanges and an error on service from Cai gave them the advantage at the end of the first game.

What turned out to be the winning game picked up where the first had left off, the physicality refusing to be taken down a notch, though as with the first game it was Jung and Lee who held off the relentless attack the best, too many errors slipping into the Chinese play as the match drew to a close.

Though the final score, coupled with the fact that the final was finished after just 42 minutes, could lead you to believe this was a straightforward win for the world number twos. It was anything but; neither pair may ever get such a workout from a two game match.

Wang Xin claimed her second Super Series crown of the year, fending off the challenge of Wang Yihan 21-14 23-21 in an all-Chinese affair.

World champion Yihan was never able to settle into a rhythm and committed far too many errors, 25 throughout the match. The contest was cagey throughout, the teammates experts in one another's styles and tactics through training; Wang Xin restricting her nemesis to just one net winner in the first game, and no smash winners whatsoever.

The second was more open, though the quality of the badminton was still fairly low. It was, in fact, Wang Yihan who comfortably hit more winners, 18 in total, but the 23 year old was unable to land enough of her shots within Wang Xin's court, missing out on two game points at the death.

The women's doubles tournament churned out a rematch of this years World Championship final in it's own setpiece. The result ended up the same. Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang took home the $31,600 prize money, leaving Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei with the silver medals, winning 22-20 21-16.

Game one could have gone either way as the Chinese rivals battled valiantly for the lead, Tian and Zhao wasting the first game before handing the lead to their opponents in a hard fought opener. The second game took a very different path, Tian and Zhao taking the first point before letting seven in a row slip away. They never so much as drew level, that despite winning seven straight points of their own, as Wang and Yu ended the match at the first attempt.