Former Singapore player Beiwen Zhang, who has turned out for the USA in individual open events for over five years now, has qualified in Phase 2 for the TOTAL BWF World Championships as a representative of the USA for the first time.

Zhang (featured image) is eligible as, under new General Competition Regulations, a player does not need to hold a passport of the member association represented if he/she is a ‘registered player for entry’ for that member association for a minimum of three years immediately before a BWF Major Event.

Phase 2 of the Women’s Singles qualifying list for the TOTAL BWF World Championships saw Zhang – World No.11 on the qualifying date of Thursday 26 April 2018 – qualify along with two others: No.84 Martina Repiska (Slovakia) and No.87 Ksenia Polikarpova (Israel).

In Men’s Singles, World No.115 Fabian Roth is among five players to qualify in Phase 2. The German has qualified with No.126 Adam Mendrek (Czech Republic), No.128 Luka Wraber (Austria), No.130 Felix Burestedt (Sweden) and No.131 Niluka Karunaratne (Sri Lanka).

In Men’s Doubles, England’s Ben Lane/Sean Vendy (No.45) have made the shortlist, as have Korea’s Choi Hyuk Gyun/Park Kyung Hoon (No.64); Guatemala’s Solis Jonathan/Rodolfo Ramirez (No.92); Peru’s Jose Guevara/Daniel La Torre Regal (No.96); Australia’s Wing Hang Leung/Mitchell Wheller (No.100); Bulgaria’s Daniel Nikolov/Ivan Rusev (No.101) and Peyo Boichinov/Ivan Panev (No.103); Italy’s Lukas Osele/Kevin Strobl (No.105); Singapore’s Terry Hee/Loh Kean Hean (No.106) and Egypt’s Abdelrahman Abdelhakim/Ahmed Salah (No.111).

As many as 11 Women’s Doubles pairs have qualified in Phase 2, led by No.17 Chae YuJung/Kim So Yeong (Korea).

The Koreans are followed by England’s Jenny Moore/Victoria Williams (No.58); Dutch pair Debora Jille/Imke Van Der Aar (No.82); USA’s Ariel Lee/Sydney Lee (No.83); Belarus’s Anastasiya Cherniavskaya/Alesia Zaitsava (No.84); Czech Republic’s Alzbeta Basova/Michaela Fuchsova (No.90); Finland’s Jenny Nystrom/Sonja Pekkola (No.92); Hong Kong’s Ng Wing Yung/Yuen Sing Ying (No.93); Russia’s Olga Arkhangelskaya/Natalia Rogova (No.94); Canada’s Michelle Tong/Josephine Wu (No.94); Algeria’s Halla Bouksani/Linda Mazri (No.101) and Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Sen/Vu Thi Trang (No.104).

Fourteen pairs have qualified in Phase 2 in Mixed Doubles, led by China’s World No.15 pair He Jiting/Du Yue.

Other qualifiers include: Indonesia’s Hafiz Faizal/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja (No.30); Korea’s Kim Won Ho/Shin Seung Chan (No.42); Japan’s Yugo Kobayashi/Misaki Matsutomo (No.47); Indonesia’s Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti (No.57); Russia’s Rodion Alimov/Alina Davletova (No.64); Korea’s Kim Jae Hwan/Lee So Hee (No.79); Scotland’s Alexander Dunn/Eleanor O’Donnell (No.100), Canada’s Nyl Yakura/Brittney Tam (No.104); Singapore’s Bimo Adi Prakaso/Jin Yujia (No.105); Bulgaria’s Dimitar Yanakiev/Mariya Mitsova (No.109); New Zealand’s Oliver Leydon-Davis/Susannah Leydon-Davis (No.112); Norway’s Fredrik Kristensen/Solvar flaten Jorgensen (No.117) and Austria’s Dominik Stipsits/Antonia Meinke (No.122).

BWF will next publish the reserves list on Friday 18 May. Member associations have to confirm by Thursday 24 May whether the eligible players in Phase 2 will enter and if any of the players in the reserves list will participate if a vacancy arises in the draw.