Quarterfinal action at the US$50,000KLRC New Zealand Badminton Open is set to have numerous highlights. The tournament is the only Grand Prix event in the Oceania region and is one of the very few sporting events in New Zealand to have such a high prizemoney.
In this evening matches watch out for a power-packed doubles contest as former top-10 doubles combination, Dan Shirley and John Gordon from Waitakere take on the top seeds Lingga and Fernando Kurniawan of Indonesia who have a current ranking of 44 as a pair. This year the Indonesian pair were semifinalists at the Macau Open and won the titles at the Singapore and Thailand International series events.
Also of note in the men’s doubles is the clash featuring young Kiwis Kevin Dennerly-Minturn and Henry Tam against the cunning and guile of Malaysians Soon Kit Cheah and Beng Teong Ong which is sure to be entertaining.
In the women’s draw there’s an all-Kiwi match-up which will be of interest to selectors and the crowd as Olympian Renee Flavell and Rachel Hindley take on Danielle Barry and Donna Haliday (nee Cranston) in a quarterfinal contest with the winner likely to play Malaysia top seeds and world No40 Chiou Hwee Haw and Pek Siah Lim in the semifinals on Friday night.
The mixed draw has matches which could go either way with a couple of good head-to-heads as former top Australian Kate-Wilson Smith returns to international badminton and links up with Kiwi singles No1 John Moody to take on the New Zealand pair of Jo Wu and Danielle Barry who are the fourth seeds. A win would most likely put them up against the top seeds Hung Ling Chen and Chia Chi Chou of Taipei who are ranked at 16th in the world.
Also competing for a semifinal place are the talented Kiwi pair of Tam and Haliday who have grown as a combination with each match. They come up against the Australia team of Raj and Renuga Veeran.
The winner of this match will probably take on the Taipei combination and No20th ranked yu Hsin Hsieh and Yu Chin Chien.
Play starts at 5.30pm at the North Shore Events Centre
Last Modified on 13/11/2008 07:56