Singapore's Ashton Chen has been promoted to the qualifiers of the Li-NIng Singapore Open 2013 following the withdrawal of China's Lin Dan from the US$200,000 event (photo by Crowd PR).

By John Yeong

Singapore's no. 2 men's shuttler Ashton Chen has been promoted to the Qualifiers of the Li-Ning Singapore Open 2013, which is part of the OSIM BWF Super Series and will be held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium from 18-23 June 2013. Chen joins compatriot Derek Wong in the Qualifiers and will face Indonesia’s H.S. Prannoy while Wong will take on Malaysia’s Zulfadli Zulkiffli in the opening round.

For the women shuttlers, top rank and Olympic gold medallist Li Xuerui is confident of doing well, with many expecting her to set-up a semi-final date with Germany’s Juliane Schenk.

Stiff Competition

Team Singapore’s Fu Mingtian will be teaming up with Shinta Mulia Sari for their SuperSeries bow and will face stiff competition, with a fixture against Women’s Double World No. 1 and top seed, Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli of China as reward should they make it into the main draw.

Singapore’s 2012 Olympic representative Derek Wong will have his work cut out for him as he battles through the qualifiers. He could possibly meet defending champion Boonsak Ponsana of Thailanad, who is aiming to become the first men’s singles shuttler to win a hat-trick of Li-Ning Singapore Open titles.

To purchase your tickets to Li-Ning Singapore Open 2013, visit this link here.