Denmark’s Rasmus KjÆr and Frederik SØgaard will look to strengthen their chances of qualifying for the season-ending HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2024 when the men’s doubles second seeds begin their campaign at the Hylo Open 2024.

The Danes are currently No.10 in the HSBC Race to Finals and will have to finish in the top seven at the end of the qualifying period (reigning Olympic champions Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin are guaranteed a spot among the eight qualifiers). While Kjaer/Sogaard are still 8,620 points behind No.7 Man Wei Chong/Tee Kai Wun, they will hope for a strong showing at the Hylo Open, followed by the last two qualifying events (Kumamoto Masters Japan and Li-Ning China Masters) that they have entered. Having had reasonable success on the circuit this season – they were in two semifinals and two quarterfinals – Kjaer and Sogaard will expect to go far in Saarbrucken.

However, with a few other pairs (such as No.12 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik and No.13 Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi) having played just nine events each so far and capable of leapfrogging them as they add significant points in subsequent events, the Danes will know their window of opportunity will be narrow.

Withdrawals

Frenchman Alex Lanier, who has been in sensational form lately, is among four players in men’s singles to withdraw; the others are: Arnaud Merkle (France), Markus Barth (Norway) and Fabio Caponio (Italy).

Men’s doubles saw one withdrawal (Poland’s Robert Cybulski/Szymon Slepecki), while there were two withdrawals in mixed doubles (Poland’s Robert Cybulski/Kornelia Marczak and Switzerland’s Nicolas Franconville/Aline Muller).

Promotions:

Men’s Singles: Mikolaj Szymanowski (Poland), Valentin Singer (France); Julien Scheiwiller (Switzerland), Aaron Sonnenschein (Germany).

Men’s Doubles: Dennis Koppen/Dyon Van Wijlick (Netherlands)

Mixed Doubles: Yann Orteu/Caroline Racloz (Switzerland), Christian Faust Kjaer/Maiken Fruergaard (Denmark)