Dolan to Face Pedrosa at World Junior Championships

Irish No 1 junior Jonathan Dolan will play Ros Leonard Pedrosa of the Philippines in his first match at the World Junior Badminton Championships.

If Dolan, World Junior Number 15 is seeded 9/16 and with a bye in the first round, beats the Filipino, he will be one match away from the last 16, where his likely opponent is top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark. Dolan had the perfect warm-up for the competition, winning two of his three matches in the Yonex World Junior Mixed team championships last week.

He faces a busy day tomorrow with a mixed doubles opening match taking place a few hours earlier. Dolan, paired with Alannah Stephenson, will play Santosh Ravuri and Maneesha K of India.

Cousins Josh Magee and Rachel Darragh have a bye into the second round of the mixed doubles where they face Yilv Wang and Huang Yaqione of China, the No 3/4 seeds.

First on court of the small Irish team is Josh Magee, who plays Alan Shekhtman of the USA in the men's singles opening round at 9am Japanese time (midnight Irish time).

In the women's singles, Alannah Stephenson faces rising Belgian star Flore Vandenhouke in her opening match at 9.30am (12.30am Irish time).

Rachel Darragh, with a bye in the opening round, will play Kim Hyo Min, of Korea, seeded 9/16, in the second round at 3pm local time (6am Irish time).

The four Irish players begin their doubles campaigns on Wednesday, with Magee and Dolan playing the Thai pair Kitphaibool and Phutthaporn in their opening match, while Darragh and Stephenson face Ya-Han Change and Yi-Chu Shih of Chinese Taipei in their first match.