Malaysia Open Review and Results 2025 – did our predictions hold?

The curtain falls on an interesting first tournament of the season in Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysia Open 2025, the traditional curtain raiser for the world tour, has given us an insight into the season to come. Only a short winter break for the shuttlers after the World Tour finals in December, now they once again have the opportunity to prove themselves on the world tour.

Winner predictions!

In the Badminton Speak predictions for the Malaysia Open 5 winners were chosen for each of the disciplines. These were based on instinct, past results, H2H results and form. So how many did we get right?

Men’s Singles – The Champion!

The Men’s singles final at the Axiata Arena was quite predictable. There was no real upset. Anders Antonsen and Shi Yu Qi, first and second seed, faced off in a replay of the 2024 final. It was a disappointing final between the two rivals. Shi Yu Qi quickly took control of the match and showed everyone how ruthless he can be. Within 40 minutes the match was over. Anders Antonsen was defeated with little more than a whimper 21-8 21-15. Shi lifted the trophy and cashed the cheque in his easiest match of the tournament.

While this was a very disappointing final match to end the men’s singles in Kuala Lumpur, the silver lining for was predicting Anders Antonsen as the winner. Now, he didn’t win, but getting to the final surely gets us some credit!

Our Rivalry Pick was spot on!

We highlighted the first-round match between Alex Lanier and Kunlavut Vitidsarn as our rivalry match. A match we think has a bit of spice to it, exciting rallies, some serious competition, and maybe something more compelling behind it. We thought this could be the start of that type of rivalry for these two players and it did not disappoint.

A lovely three-set match with a 23-21 final set is all you can ask for. Alex Lanier’s fearless attitude is something to be admired. Unfortunately, we chose Alex Lanier as our outside favourite, but failed badly. It was always a high-risk choice up against such a strong first-round match.

Women’s Singles – The Champion!

Our prediction for the Women’s singles was also not too surprising. There is one woman that is recognised as the best player on tour. The reigning Olympic champion An Se Young. She was seeded first and we didn;t see any real problems for her in her draw.

Line Christophersen defeated in straight sets, Nguyen of Vietnam in straight sets, Beiwan Zhang retired injured. Even the rejuvinated Ratchanok Intanon was brushed aside 21-14 21- 18 in the semi final. An then faced off against second seed Wang of China and again demonstrated her superiority 21-17 21-7. This could be a record-breaking year for An Se Young, could she beat Kento Momota’s record of 11 titles won in a single season?

What about our outside favourite?

Our prediction was for Japanese hot-shot Miyazaki. She had a good end to the 2024 season and I could see her doing well in Malaysia. This did not quite go how we thought it would. We saw a good match in the first round with Mia Blickfeldt but thought she would win in 3 and meet An Se Young in the quarter final. This was not to be.

As we highlighted our rivalry match choice, Blichfeldt lost to Miyazaki last season and came back with some fire to return the favour in a tasty 3-set match. So not the outside favourite but the rivalry has been sparked.

Men’s Doubles – The Champions!

Men’s Doubles was thankfully a little more unpredictable. In our prediction, we hoped that the home town stars Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik would get the job done for the home crowed. Unfortunately that didn’t materialise. The last remaining Malaysian pair was actually Wei Chong Man with Kai Wun TEE in the semifinal where they lost a tight match to the eventual winners in 3 sets.

The two top seeds were taken out in the first and second round respectively. This was great to see. As fans we want some jeopardy! The final in Kuala Lumpur was actually played between two unseeded pairs. Chen and Liu of China, WR 18, against unranked Won Ho KIM and Seung Jai SEO. The unranked pair made every match look comfortable, not losing a set en-route to the final. The Chinese pair had more trouble, showing their determination and resilience to come through three 3 set matches to reach the final.

The first set was close, neither pair wanting to give the other an advantage. It culminated in a 21-19 win for the Chinese. This is when the match turned. The South Koreans came back more focused for the second set wasting no time in forging a lead they refused to relinquish. They showed their ferocity clsoing out the set 21-12 and repeating the same exercise in the third 21-12. A first victory for the Koreans in their first tournament together.

How did our outside favourite do?

In our prediction we chose the new Chinese Taipei pair Chiu Hsiang Chieh and Wang Chi-Lin to upset the party so to speak. They were matched against the first seeds from Denmark ASTRUP and RASMUSSEN in the first round. Did they deliver? YES THEY DID! A beautiful win taking the third set 22-20!

Great value as an outside choice. Unfortunately their tounament ended in the next round in another gruelling 3 set match. More to come from this pair though!

Did the rivalry deliver?

Our rivalry pick for the men’s doubles was Alfian and Ardianto against Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi in the first round. A perculier match-up as the lower ranked pair had won the last two meeting. This played out once again in Malaysia. The home town pair beat out the higher ranked Indonesians. They can be confident they have their number now, a big problem for the Indonesians going forward.

Womens Doubles – The Champions!

The Womens doubles was affected by many missing top pairs which we hoped could throw up some exciting results. Having said this we did pick the Korean second seeds Ha Na BAEK and So Hee LEE as our favourites to take home the money from Malaysia. Unfortunately they let us down with a quarter-final loss to the eventual winners, a new pair out of Japan!

Zero points to us….

Similar to the Men’s Doubles, two unseeded pairs fought for the title in the Axiata Arena. Chinese pair Yi Fan JIA and Shu Xian ZHANG, who defeated their compatriots and first seeds, Liu and Tan in the semi-final. They had a final showdown with the unseeded new Japanese pair Yuki FUKUSHIMA and Mayu MATSUMOTO who smashed third seeds LI and LUO in their semi-final.

Though the Japanese pair are new together the two tournaments they already played earned them podium spots. Needless to say, they are used to a big occassion. Both pairs competed well in the first set with the Chinese pair coming through with a 21-17 win. The Japanese pair then settled and eased themselves into the second set, controlling the rallies well. This cool and controlled approach from the Japanese paid off when they came out 21-15 winners in the second following it up with another cool 21-15 win in the third.

Our Ones to Watch!

In our prediction for the Malaysia Open we picked a pair to watch who we thought could provide some excitement. Maybe they could cause some upsets, maybe they could beat the odds or perhaps they are a new pair on the tour… Well maybe we gain some points back for selecting the winners FUKUSHIMA and MATSUMOTO as our ones to watch!!

Did the Rivalry we pick live up to expectation?

No. The KIM and KONG VS BAEK and LEE never materialised in the quarter-final. They weren’t able to get past the Japanese winners who blitzed both pairs early on. Our other mentions also did not live up to expectations. What rivalry should we look out for at the INDIA OPEN?

Mixed Doubles – The Champions!

The Mixed doubles draw did not throw up any obvious problems for the seeded players. That’s why we focused on the top seeded Chinese pairs to win this one. Feng and Huang had our vote of confidence to take the title as the first seeds.

We were largely correct with 3 of the 4 semi-finalists being seeds. This meant Feng and Huang were able to make it swiftly through the draw into the final with little problem. Straight sets all the way to the final where they met the clitches in our prediction. The Thai unseeded pair Dechapol and Supissara. They are WR 57 but won two title in 2024. They should have been our ones to watch!

You have already guessed it. The Thai pair took the title from the Chinese number ones in a 3 set tactical battle 21-13 19-21 21-18. A sign of good things to come from this new Thai pairing.

Where did our ones to watch end up?

Well we already mentioned we should have picked this Thai pair, instead we chose a pair that they faced in a final in 2024 Kapila and Crasto of India. Unfortunately, they were swiftly dealt with in the second round. Perhaps they need some time to get back into competition after a few weeks off.

Did the rivalry pick live up to expectation?

In short, no. A huge let down. We thought the European showdown between Delrue and Gicquel against Vestergaard and Busch would give us some fireworks. The season opener, the closing gap between France and Denmark, very limited competition at the top of European mixed doubles. No. The French pair obliterated the Danes with very little problems. not competitive and not that interesting.

Did our picks for upsets come off?

YES and Yes again!!!

Can we see the future? probably not, but we do know badminton. Four of our Five picks for upsets came off at the Malaysia Open 2025.

Our Men’s singles pick was Toma Jr Popov defeating Jonatan Christie in the first round which did happen in some style with the French man winning the third set 26-24!

The women’s singles pick of Wardani beating higher ranked compatriot Tunjung also came off! This turend out to be a simpler match than we thought wiht a 21-8 21-14 win.

In the mens doubles we saw something in the first round match up of Lane and Vendy VS He and Ren! This was a much bigger upset than most as the English pair don’t go too far in big events but they can pull off the odd upset. They actually dominated the thrid set making it look easy 21-11.

The Womens doubles was much mroe difficult for us to choose and upset. Lots of new partnerships but would they really be counted as upsets? We couldn’t see many so put our money on Kim and kong to beat the Yeung sisters of Hong Kong. This paid off in what was an easy match in the end. A 40 minute demolition. The Koreans will be ranked above them by the end of the year.

You will already have worked out, with four pay outs so to speak, it was the mixed doubles that we need to study more. We couldn’t actually see any upsets in the first round so chose Kapila and Crasto to win their second round match vs Cheng and Zhang of China. Unfortunately we backed the wrong pair on this occassion.