One week after the YONEX North Harbour International takes place, many of the players will travel south of Auckland to compete in the YONEX Waikato International from Thursday 28 – Sunday 31 March 2019. The event has attracted a wide range of talented players from Oceania, Pan-America, Asia and Europe to compete in this BWF International Series event in Hamilton.
Across all three doubles disciplines, we see finalists and champions from the recent VICTOR Oceania Badminton Championships 2019 looking to win the event as first seeds in their respective disciplines, while also competing for points in the Oceania Tour – an exclusive system for Oceania players competing in the regional events to be awarded with funding for further training and competitions. This includes:
- MD – Simon Wing Hang Leung / Mitchell Wheller – Australia
- WD – Gronya Somerville / Setyana Mapasa – Australia
- XD – Simon Wing Hang Leung / Gronya Somerville – Australia
New Zealand’s own pairings of Sally Fu / Alyssa Tagle and Maika Phillips / Anona Pak will compete in front of a home crowd as the second seeds in the women’s and mixed doubles categories. Meanwhile in the men’s doubles, the second seeds from Singapore, Wen Xing Abel Tan and Han Zhuo Toh, will be looking to deny the reigning regional champions the chance of a gold medal.
Across the men’s and women’s singles, the first seeds are both top players from Vietnam – and a husband and wife combination. Tien Minh Nguyen, currently ranked at 64 in the world rankings will be looking to take the title in the men’s singles alongside his wife, Thi Trang Vu, currently ranked 58 in the world. The singles players will be competing as first seeds in both the YONEX North Harbour International and YONEX Waikato International. However, both reigning singles champions from the recent VICTOR Oceania Championships aren’t competing in the event, while New Zealand’s Sally Fu will be looking to use her experience from the semi-finals at the regional championships to compete in the women’s singles event as the third seed.
New Caledonia’s Ronan Ho-Yagues played a pivotal role in helping his team secure bronze at the VICTOR Oceania Mixed Team Championships last month and will be the sole representative of New Caledonia at the YONEX Waikato International 2019. He will be competing for valuable points towards the Oceania Tour, while increasing his international playing experience in the men’s singles event. He will compete in the first round against New Zealand’s own Nelson Zhang.
The full draw is now available to view on Tournament Software:
