(
my 2017 predictions)
i believe 2018 will play out like this:
ws:- tai tzu ying will finish @ #1 again. she'll win at least 4 of the wt-500/750/1000's. one less than last year but still more than all other ws players. the next significant players are intanon, yamaguchi & okuhara... all winning at least twice. one of those 4 will win the wc. marin, pvs, chen yufei are certainly capable of winning but i can't see them winning more than once in today's competitive environment. the advantage is turning back to racket skills, because all of the top players are fast now.
wd: japan wins the most. china and korea next. who finishes @ #1? cqc/jyf or fukushima/hirota. wc? one of those 2 pairs.
xd: zheng siwei/huang yaqiong dominate & finish @ #1 with at least 5 major wins + wc. hard to see any threats on the horizon. japan & korea will continue to make significant improvements and occupy the 2nd tier.
md: kevin/marcus will definitely not win 7 again, but will still finish @ #1. the same pairs from denmark/china/japan will fight it out for #2.
ms: axelsen dominates his year. he's in year 2 of a typical 3 year peak run. winning 5 majors + wc would not surprise me at all. his main competition will be srikanth kidambi. momota will make his mark towards the 2nd half of the year. chen long's inconsistency will continue. the 35+ crowd fades, but each of them are capable of grinding out 1 win.
thomas cup: wow, too hard to pick. out of the top teams [china/japan/indonesia/korea] i don't know who has 3 sure wins against each other. on paper it's china but the consistency isn't there. 2nd most likely is indonesia: 2 rising singles & the top doubles pair. a possible shocker, but no surprise to me, would be korea taking it. they have steady ms players, and rising young enthusiastic md's whom are absolutely capable of upsetting higher ranked pairs. japan's fate is based on how far momota progresses by may 20th and if this will be a breakthrough year for their doubles teams.
uber cup: japan. i can't see another team taking 3 out of 5 from them. only china has a slight chance of doing that. korea is lacking in ws.
overall, no major changes from 2017. i believe it's because all of the best players are around the same age.
3 dark horses poised to be 'most improved':
md - satwiksairaj rankireddy/chirag shetty (ind)
xd - choi solgyu/chae yoo jung (kor), yuta watanabe/arisa higashino (jpn)