In just over one week’s time, Team Australia will travel to Nanning, China, to compete in the TOTAL BWF Sudirman Cup 2019.
Australia announced their team over six weeks ago:
Women
- Tiffany Ho (NSW)
- Louisa Ma (VIC)
- Setyana Mapasa (NSW)
- Gronya Somerville (VIC)
Men
- Ashwant Gobinathan (VIC)
- Simon Leung (QLD)
- Jacob Schueler (VIC)
- Sawan Serasinghe (VIC)
- Eric Vuong (VIC)
Australia’s women’s singles representative, Louisa Ma, is in pursuit of Olympic qualification in the women’s singles at next year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and will be using the Sudirman Cup as prime experience to compete against the world’s best players.
Ma celebrated a final appearance in both the YONEX North Harbour International 2018 and VICTOR Oceania Individual Championships and was selected to represent Australia in the TOTAL BWF Uber Cup Finals last May.
This year, competing for the first time at the Sudirman Cup, Ma expressed her excitement towards the event after narrowly missing out in the 2017 Sudirman Cup selection:
“The only comparable event would be when I had the opportunity to compete in the Uber Cup last year. It’s always been a dream to play in the Uber Cup and Sudirman Cup as badminton is an individual sport and there are few opportunities to compete with a team for your nation.”
When asked about the aspect which players are most looking forward to about playing in China, it comes as no surprise that the atmosphere in one of the world’s biggest badminton nations consistently comes out top:
“I’m definitely looking forward to experiencing a different type of crowd and hype in a country where badminton is one of the biggest sports.”
This year, one of the biggest challenges comes right at the beginning of the tournament, as Australia and New Zealand will compete against each other in group 3A. Only three months ago did the teams last play against each other in the final of the VICTOR Oceania Mixed Team Championships.
Speaking of the Trans-Tasman rivalry, Ma said:
“We often compete against each other and we know each other quite well. We won the Oceania Championships so I’d think we just continue to build on what we have and be ready to front our next clash”
Find out more about the event on the official website.
