World No.1 An Se Young, seeking a record 11^th title this season at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2025, will expect a challenging start to her campaign as she was drawn with world champion Akane Yamaguchi in her group.

The Olympic champion and the world champion face off in women’s singles Group A in which they were placed along with rising stars Putri Kusuma Wardani and Tomoka Miyazaki.

Group B will see compatriots face off, with China’s Wang Zhi Yi and Han Yue, and Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong and Ratchanok Intanon, vying for qualification to the knockout round. The top two players/pairs of each group will make it to the semifinals.

An’s compatriots Kim Won Ho/Seo Seung Jae, also seeking their 11^th title of the season, were drawn with Man Wei Chong/Kai Wun Tee, Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani and Chiu Hsiang Chieh/Wang Chi-Lin.

Men’s doubles Group B could classify as a ‘group of death’ with second seeds Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty, local hopes Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang and Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Shohibul Fikri.

Men’s singles Group A is also likely to go down the wire, with World Championships silver medallist Kunlavut Vitidsarn up against Anders Antonsen, Christo Popov and Jonatan Christie.

Olympic champion Shi Yu Qi will look to wrap up his sensational season with his third World Tour Finals title. Shi will be challenged by compatriot Li Shi Feng, Chou Tien Chen and Kodai Naraoka in Group B.

In women’s doubles, top seeds Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan avoided the pitfalls of facing world champions Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning in Group A. The Malaysians face Jia Yi Fan/Zhang Shu Xian, Japan’s Yuki Fukushima/Mayu Matsumoto and Rin Iwanaga/Kie Nakanishi.

Liu/Tan were drawn with defending champions Baek Ha Na/Lee So Hee, Singapore Open champions Kim Hye Jeong/Kong Hee Yong and season finale debutants Hsieh Pei Shan/Hung En-Tzu.

Mixed doubles saw the two Malaysian pairs – Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei and Goh Soon Huat/Lai Shevon Jemie — drawn in Group B with second seeds Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping and Jafar Hidayatullah/Felisha Albert Nathaniel Pasaribu.

Top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Supissara Paewsampran are up against Jiang Zhen Bang/Wei Ya Xin, Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue and Hiroki Midorikawa/Natsu Saito.