Day 1 Wrap from Barfoot & Thompson NZ Badminton Open

Day one wrapped up at the Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Badminton Open at Eventfinda Stadium on Auckland’s North Shore today, with a hint of the world class badminton that is to come as the final rounds of qualifying and the opening round of mixed doubles played out in front of a good first-day crowd.

A number of New Zealand combinations negotiated their way into the main draw, with mixed doubles pairings Rig Oud & Stephanie Liao, Dacmen Vong & Justine Villegas, Edward Lau & Alyssa Tagle, Danny Oud & Jasmine Ng all inking their names in the first round and with it a shot at upsetting more fancied opponents in the HSBC BWF Super 300 Tournament.

The first of what could be many upsets in a tournament with quality throughout every event saw Malaysian pairing of Tan & Lai upset the number 6 seeds Rivaldy and Mentari (INA) in two close games to move into the second round of the mixed doubles, the Malaysians taking the honours 21-14, 21-18.

Complete first day results, CLICK HERE

Tomorrow sees the tournament get underway proper, with big crowds expected for first round action in all events, with the highlights seeing two-time Olympic and five-time World Champion Lin Dan (CHN) taking on New Zealand champion Abhinav (Mani) Manota in the Barfoot & Thompson match of the day. That match will be played on court one at approximately 6:40pm.

Manota will have already appeared on court with double’s partner Oliver Leydon Davis as the Kiwi combination look to back up their recent runner-up finish in the Netherlands with another strong performance in Auckland. They are up against it though, facing off against one of the star pairings in Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan & Hendra Setiawan, the number two seeds. That match is due on court at Eventfinda Stadium at 10:20am.

In the women’s singles there is a huge amount of attention on Saina Nehwal, the Indian is a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist and plays in Auckland as the number 2 seed and faces Zhiyi Wang (CHN) in her first-round encounter at approximately 6pm.

New Zealand champion Sally Fu plays her first-round match at 6:20pm against Indonesia’s Ruselli Hartawan, like Mani Manota, Fu is the beneficiary of a wildcard into the main draw and will have nothing to lose against her young opponent.

Doors open at 8:30am tomorrow morning, with the first shuttle hit at 9:00am, with a full schedule of 68 matches covering all events throughout the day and evening.

Tickets are selling fast but are available and can be purchased at the door, or via the event website www.nzbadmintonopen.com

New Zealanders to receive wildcards into the first round of the main draw are:

• Abhinav (Mani) Manota, men’s singles
• Sally Fun, women’s singles
• Riga Oud and Daxxon Vong, men’s doubles
• Sally Fu and Alyssa Tagle, women’s doubles
• Anona Pak and Maika Phillips, mixed doubles

2019 Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Badminton Interesting Facts and Figures

o HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300 event
o $150,000 USD Prize Money
o In 2019 a record 325 players have entered from 21 countries
o Entries include 11 players/pairs ranked in the top 5 in the world. 23 players/pairs ranked in the top 10 in the world
o Entries include 11 former World Champions or former World Number 1 ranked players. 13 Olympic Medallists
o 49 NZ Players entered, only 8 made the main draw.
o NZ’s leading players for this event are Sally Fu (Women’s Singles), Abhinav Manota (Men’s Singles) and Abhinav Manota and Oliver Leydon-Davis (Men’s Doubles – who are working towards Tokyo Olympics Qualification).
o Global superstars in Auckland
Lin Dan (China) Essentially China’s Richie McCaw - 2 x Olympic Gold Medallist, 5 x World Champion. 3.7 million followers on Weibo. First sportsperson in China to have a Weibo post have 1 billion reads.
Saina Nehwal (India) Hugely popular in India - 3x CWG Gold Medallist, 7.8 million followers on Facebook
Fukushiam/Hirota (Japan) World Number 1 Women’s Doubles Pair
Anthony Ginting (Indonesia), top seed in men’s singles
Ahsan/Setiawan (Indonesia), second seeds in men’s doubles
o International Broadcast to 44 million households worldwide
o The 2018 event sold out on finals day Sunday with Chinese legend Lin Dan winning the Men’s Singles Title.
o 41 hours of TV broadcast into three Chinese TV channels in 2018
o 2019 event runs from Tuesday 30th April till Sunday 5th May 2019
o Badminton New Zealand hold the rights to host this event again in 2020 and 2021

For the full draw, CLICK HERE

For all further information on the tournament, including ticket sales and session times, visit www.nzbadmintonopen.com

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