The Sydney badminton community is gearing up for their biggest tournament of the year as the SATHIO GROUP Australian Badminton Open 2023 is only four days away from the first shuttle being served.
In 2023, the tournament has been elevated to a HSBC BWF World Super 500, attracting a number of high caliber players such as crowd favourite, Kean Yew from Singapore. Thrilling to watch will be the two Indonesian men’s singles players, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and Jonathan Christie, who have made many appearances at the Australian Badminton Open over the years. Malaysian, Lee Zii Jia will no doubt entertain the fans with his dynamic style.
The women’s singles line up, featuring world number two, An Se Young (KOR), Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND) and Ratchanok Intanon (THA) will surely enthral and excite, but don’t discount Thailand’s Pompawee Chochuwong and American Beiwen Zhang who will be doing their utmost to feature at the latter end of the tournament.
Having a BWF World Tour tournament in your own backyard can only be positive for the Oceania players particularly those who are chasing Olympic qualification.
Looking to make the most of the wild card on offer to him, Australian Nathan Tang will play up and coming Priyanshu Rajawat (IND) in his first match. Tang, who is a senior member of the Australian Falcons, is “excited to play against such a world class player” from India, who won the Orleans Masters tournament earlier this year. With the TOTALENERGIES BWF World Championships 2023 being played in Denmark later in August, Tang says “that playing such a big event to get some further match play will be invaluable”. Having played in the Australian Badminton Open since 2011, he [Tang] is proud to see how this tournament has grown over the years.
After recently competing at the Daihatsu Japan Open 2023, and at the end of a long stint away from home chasing valuable ranking points-, Gronya Somerville will be looking to post some good results at her home tournament. “Having friends and family around to watch will be great” Somerville said.
Gronya and partner Kaitlyn Ea are currently in the qualification draw to face Paula Lynn Cao Hok and Lauren Lam (USA). Speaking of their upcoming match, Somerville’s view is that “the Americans are of a similar level which will make for good competition”. In the mixed doubles qualification match it will be all-Australian affair when they face Rayne Wang and Angela Yu, although with Kenneth and Gronya sitting at number three in the qualification ranking they will have their fingers crossed for some withdrawals from the main draw to give them automatic promotion.
Another Australian pair keeping everything crossed are fellow team mates, Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu, who are top of the women’s doubles reserve list. Any withdrawal will see them take their place in the qualification draw.
One thing is certain, the Australian players are relishing the opportunity to be back on home soil, ready to be a part of this memorable tournament and having hometown support.
Traveling across the Tasman from New Zealand, Ryan Tong and Jack Wang make their appearance in the men’s doubles qualification draw. Set to play against recent inductees into the Australian Falcons, Rizky Hidayat and Frengky Wijaya Putra, Tong and Wang will be taking every opportunity to establish a place in the main draw. Follow their progress and the other Oceania players here.
Photocredit: BadmintonPhoto
