The Asian IBF results from Malaysia, Indonesia Brunei have now been tabulated and the participant field is set for the 2001 JVC Asian Badminton Championships in Manila this week.  World and Asian top ten ranked players have secured their place among the top seeds at the event  and have qualified to win the USD 1,000 prize from the JVC Asian Rankings.  In the Men's and Ladies' Doubles fields, #1 world ranked pairs have qualified for Asia's #1 seed and will fight to prove themselves worthy this week.

The current JVC Asian Men's Singles Champion, Taufik Hidayat, comes through as the top seed at the 2001 event as well.  Through victories last year in the 5 star Indonesia and Malaysia and the JVC Asian Championships last November as well as a semi-final showing at the 2001 World Championships, he has secured him the top position at this year's event.  He outlasted a strong surge from China's Xia Xuanze,  Korea's Lee Hyun Il and India's Pulella Gopichand.  His chief competition will come from these players and Indonesiafinalist Lee Tsuen Seng from Malaysia with Fung Permadi of Chinese Taipei attempting to add to his stable of titles.

On the Ladies' Singles side, Wang Chen of Hong Kong will take home the JVC Asian Rankings prize as the top seed.  Strong performances at the recent Malaysia and Indonesia have kept her world and Asian ranking high throughout the 2001 season.  Her main competition in this event will come against Kanako Yonekura of Japan, Zhang Ning of China and IndonesiaChampion, Ellen Angelina.  Angelina the Indonesian inalist at the 2000 JVC ABC event in Jakarta, is competing on her own after being released from the Indonesian team and has come on strong of late resulting in her first victory at the 5 star Indolast month.  

The doubles categories have seen some interesting developments over the past few weeks with world Champions and current world #1 Indonesians Tony Gunawan/Halim Haryanto taking the JVC Rankings prize this year on the men's side.   Mounting the challenge against them at the Ultra Stadium will be compatriots Candra Wijaya/Sigit Budiarto, who are also former World Champions and the world #2 ranked players and have recently bagged the Malaysiatitle.  Emerging in strong positions will be young players from Hong Kong, Liu Kwok Wa/Albertus Susanto Njoto as well as Chinese Taipei's top team, Chien Yu Hsun/Guang Shih Chung.

On the Ladies' Doubles side, the top seed and JVC Asian Rankings prize goes to world #1 Chinese pair, Gao Ling/Huang Sui who have shown consistent play since their appearance in the World Championships and at last month's Malaysia  Although the #2 seed at this year's Championships is the Japanese pairing of Megumi Onike/Kaori Mori, it appears that the unseeded Indonesian pair, Deyana Lombon/Vita Marissa will be the chief competitors to the Chinese. Deyana/Vita won the Indonesialast month and appear to be in top form coming into the JVC ABC this year.  "Although we're a new team, we have a lot of experience and look forward to playing well in Manila," said Lombon. 

Kim Dong Moon and his partner Ra Kyung Min take the title in the Mixed Doubles category.  This will be the second time that Kim has taken a JVC Rankings title after winning in 1999 with his Men's Doubles partner, Ha Tae Kwon.  This experienced pair will face tough competition from Indonesian and Chinese pairs.  Particularly #2 seeds, Bambang Suprianto/Minarti Timur from Indonesia will seek to topple the Koreans.   Trikus Hariyanto/Emma Ermawati, also of Indonesia will also figure into the situation as Trikus, playing with old partner Minarti, are fresh off a finals appearance at last week's World Grand Prix Finals.   

Last year, we selected Taufik Hidajat and Lee Wan Wah/Choong Tan Fook among the young favorites to watch for the 2001.  Taufik has proven his staying power, but the Malaysian doubles pair have not performed to expectations this year.  Instead, Indonesian dominance of the Men's Doubles category looks imminent into 2002 with Tony/Halim and Sigit/Cantra maintaining their form.  Our prediction that Ladies' Doubles team of Ge Fei/Gu Jun may be would retire was correct, however, they passed the mantle to compatriots Gao Ling/Huang Sui.  We still feel that our selection of Huang Nenyang/Yang Wei will prove to be correct in 2002 as we see this new Chinese pair improving week by week.  The Ladies' Singles will continue to be dominated by the Chinese with the Mixed Doubles completely up for grabs between Indonesian, Chinese and Korean pairs.  Keep in touch with the JVC Asian Rankings on www.jvc-badminton.com for weekly updates!

The JVC Asian Badminton Rankings act as the mechanism for developing the seedings at the annual JVC Asian Badminton Championships.  Top seeds this year will receive a prize of USD 1,000 from JVC.  These prizes will be given out at the JVC Asian Badminton Championships to all players finishing in the highest position on the JVC Asian Rankings and competing in the event therefore qualifying them as the #1 seeded players at the JVC Asian Badminton Championships.