One Week Until Top Sportspeople From Around The World Hit Auckland

Just one week away from the start of 250 athletes from 19 countries competing in the US$50,000 SKYCITY New Zealand Badminton Open there’s plenty for Event Director, Julie Carrel and tournament officials to do with the scheduling of 52 qualifying and 187 main draw matches using an estimated 2000 shuttles.

The April 10-14 event at the North Shore Events Centre is set to capture the minds of not only the large Asian community in Auckland (approximately 20 per cent of the population) but will also have its finals day broadcast live in to several countries in Asia as well as have live streaming from day three of the event.

One of the key players in the tournament is highly-regarded Indonesian and current world No20 Simon Santoso who is a national representative for his country and is aiming to use the Auckland tournament as a stepping stone to return to the top 10 after injuries have kept him out of play so far this year. The top ranked Kiwi men’s singles player is Joe Wu. The women’s main draw singles is headed by Taipei’s Hsiao Ma Pai at with a ranking of 21 as top seed.

Kevin Dennerly-Minturn and Oliver Leydon-Davis are the top Kiwi men’s doubles combination face the sixth seeds and world No51 ranked pair Chen Hung Ling and Lu Chia Bin(Chinese Taipei) in the first round. There are five seeded teams in the top 20 rankings. There is also a strong women’s doubles draw and a mixed draw which has plenty of highly ranked players, including the world No12 pair of Riky Widianto and Puspita Richi Dili(Indonesia). Kiwi brother and sister pair of Susannah and Oliver Leydon-Davis play seventh seeds Chen Hung Ling and Wu Ti Jung(Chinese Taipei) in the first round.

“It’s been a huge effort to get things to this point and with one week to go everything is coming together well. It has been challenging to secure sufficient funds to meet the cost of staging the event and prize money, however we are looking long term for this tournament and establishing its place on the international calendar as well forming a successful partnership with SKYCITY. We’ll be hoping that additional partners and sponsors such as Auckland City can see how good the event is and the benefits it brings to the region and that they want to be a part of the tournament next year,” said SKYCITY New Zealand Badminton Open Event Director Julie Carrel.
The SKYCITY New Zealand Badminton Open will be held from 10-14 April 2013 at the North Shore Events Centre, Auckland.
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