Top-10 Player Confirmed For US$50,000 Event

Top-10 Player & Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist Confirmed For US$50,000 Badminton Event

At US$50,000 prizemoney the KLRC New Zealand Badminton Open this month is one of the higher ranking sporting events in terms of prizemoney on offer in New Zealand.

The event which runs from May 15-20 at the Auckland Badminton Hall in Gillies Ave is a World Grand Prix tournament and has entries from over 170 individual players and 25 nations from all corners of the world including England, France, Spain, to Asian strongholds of Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and Korea as well as New Zealand and Australia.

The defending men’s and women’s singles champions Tsuen Seng Lee(Malaysia) and Chi Huang(Australia) are both returning while one of the highest ranked players to ever take the court in New Zealand, Hongyan Pi at No6 in the world will be a player to watch. The Chinese-born Frenchwoman has 17 career titles to her credit and was as high as No2 in the world in February 2005. Melbourne Commonwealth Games women’s singles gold medalist, Tracey Hallam from England has also entered.

The men’s singles draw features England’s Andrew Smith as the likely top seed at No13 in the world followed by defending champion and 16th ranked Lee of Malaysia and countryman Muhd Roslin Hashim at 18 with 2005 winner Sairul Amar Ayob(Malaysia) at 22. Hong Kong player Wei Ng comes in at 23 and Malaysian Kay Bin Yeoh ranked at 25 with Yan Kit Chan from Hong Kong the 2005 finalist ranked 29th. Welshman Richard Vaughan will round out the seeds at No 30. The top ranked Kiwi is John Moody who has a ranking of 35.

The women’s singles field has 56 entries and is headed by world Pi. Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong is ranked at 13 while defending champion, Taipei-born Australian Huang at 17 will be the third seed. Other seeds include regular visitors Kanako Yonekura(Japan), Chie Umezu(Japan) and Malaysian Sutheaswari Mudukasan at 32, 34 and 38th respectively. Highly-regarded Englishwoman Hallam is also ranked inside the top-40 on her way back from injury while Kiwi No1 Rachel Hindley is at 42.

Kiwi triple Commonwealth Games and world champs medalist Dan Shirley along with Malaysian partner Joanne Quay are ranked 15th in the world and will be the top seeds followed closely by a French pair at 18.

The women’s doubles looks set to be dominated by the Malaysian pair of Quay and Pek Siah Lim who are a top-20 pair with a Hong Kong combination a challenger. The top Kiwi is Donna Cranston from the Waikato and Renee Flavell from Auckland.

The men’s doubles draw has several unpredictable duo’s from Indonesia and Hong Kong who may not have the highest rankings but are always difficult and defy rankings . Top seeds are No12 ranked Hong Kong pair, Albertus Njoto and Yohan Wiratama. There is also the veteran Kiwi duo of Richard Purser and Phil Horne who have plenty of history on their side and a combination of 40 plus national senior titles between them as well as numerous Commonwealth Games appearances.

The strength of the entries has delighted Badminton NZ Executive Director, Peter Dunne, who believes the tournament is a showcase for international sport, not just badminton.

“We’re delighted to have such notable players at the KLRC New Zealand Open. A competitor the standard of Pi who had been close to No1 in the world and has won some major events and the likes of Tracey Hallam who won the Commonwealth Games gold in Melbourne are the likes of athletes we don’t see in this country in any sport very often. The men’s draw has plenty of depth too and although not highly ranked I think some of the Indonesians may challenge the likes of the Malaysians for titles. It will also be good to watch Dan Shirley who has three Commonwealth Games medals and a world champ medal and is a real class act,” says Dunne.

The new tournament sponsor is the Kuala Lumpur Racket Club which is a private club owned by Dato’ Sri Andrew Kam who also supports a variety of New Zealand’s top players such as Hindley, Moody and Shirley.

The tournament will also feature live coverage on the internet of the majority of matches.

Tickets for the tournament are now available at the venue.

www.klrcnzopen.com

Nations entered: 25:
New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Peru, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Samoa, Singapore, Denmark, England, Fiji, Estonia, Ireland, Israel, Korea, Japan, Taipei, Vietnam, Croatia, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia and Wales.

ENDS

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