Cebu Daily News / Sports

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Philippine Open Badminton kicks off today Cebu Daily News Posted date: July 01, 2009 World-Class badminton action will be on for all the local fans to see starting today as close to 200 players, including those ranked in the top 10, battle it out for a slice of the $120,000 cash prize in the Bingo Bonanza Philippine Open Badminton Championships at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City. The elimination round commences at 10 a.m. with some of the best players from all over the world raring to put their incredible skills and prowess on display. These includes world No. 2 Zhou Mi of Hong Kong, Andrew Smith of England, Vietnam's top player Nguyen Tien Minh, former world junior champion Chen Long of China, Yip Pui Yin, also of Hong Kong, the women's Indonesian pair of Meiliana Jauhari and Shendy Iwarati and its men's tandems of Bona Septano-Mohammad Ahsan and Rian Sukmawan-Yonathan Dasuki. While all eyes will undoubtedly be on the foreign bets as they battle it out for titles in the men's and ladies singles, men's and ladies doubles as well as the mixed doubles event, the local front will also be slugging it out for world ranking points in order to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. The Philippines has the most number of entries in the tournament with a total of 74 while badminton world powers Indonesia, China and Hong Kong have combined for a total of 75 shuttlers. Malaysia, Singapore and Japan also have entries in the field. Fifty-three teams will fight it out for the men's doubles crown while the ladies doubles plum will be disputed by 32 pairs. The men's and ladies singles drew 57 and 39 entries respectively while 48 teams will slug it out for top honors in the mixed doubles. Leading the country's charge will be the veteran mixed doubles tandem of Kennevic and Kennie Asuncion. However, some fresh new talent are also itching the make names for themselves including Malvinne Alcala, Gelita Castillo, Kelvin Ang and Peter and Patrick Magnaye. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio