With three back-to-back tournaments coming to Bangkok next month, we examine which participant entered to the YONEX Thailand Open (12-17 January) and TOYOTA Thailand Open (19-24 January) has won the most titles on Thai soil in the last five years. This time, the focus is on women’s doubles.

HAPPY HUNTERS

Players: Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan

World ranking: 1

Seed number in Thailand: 1

Titles won in Thailand since 2015: 3 as a pair

As a pair, Chen and Jia have returned home from Bangkok as winners thrice, with their most recent success coming early this year at Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters, three years after taking the honours at the same competition.

Chen has two more medals from the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in 2015, where she partnered Zheng Si Wei to the mixed doubles title and helped China ace the team event.

That final against Korea, which China won 3-0, also marked the first time she and Jia were part of a victorious squad as a tandem, although they did not need to play their match against Kim Hye Jeong/Hye Eun Park.

SPECIAL MENTION

Home shuttlers Puttita Supajirakul/Sapsiree Taerattanachai are another pair to have lifted two titles in Thailand. They were triumphant at SCG Thailand Open 2016 and last year’s Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters.

HOW IS THE RECORD OF THE TOP 10 SEEDS LIKE?

Among those seeded next month, only Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai (Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters 2018) and Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu (TOYOTA Thailand Open 2018) have won titles in Thailand.

FUN FACT

Phataimas Muenwong has two women’s doubles crowns but they were won with different partners – Parinyawat Thongnuam at Smiling Fish Thailand International Series 2015 and Chayanit Chaladchalam at SCG Thailand Open 2017.