Badminton: Top-class badminton makes debut in NZ

The first professional badminton tournament in Oceania begins with New Zealand badminton on a high after unprecedented success at the world championships, but with few top 10 world players attending the inaugural Equinox NZ Open.

For Badminton NZ, it is the culmination of months of hard work. An officially sanctioned one star event with a $US30,000 prize pool, the tournament has attracted a healthy line-up of overseas players, as well as New Zealand's finest.

There are, however, no top-10 players attending and only one ranked in the world's top 20 - Malaysia's Sairul Amar Ayob, who is 17th in the world and first in the men's singles event.

The other leading seeds in the men's event are all ranked in the top 50, with New Zealander John Moody the highest-ranked local at 34 in the world and fourth for the tournament. Another Kiwi, Geoffrey Bellingham, is ranked seventh for the tournament and has a world ranking of 54.

In the women's division, the top seed and highest-ranked player is Miyo Akao from Japan, ranked 26 in the world.

The top New Zealander is Rachel Hindley, with a tournament ranking of three and world ranking of 32 respectively.

In the men's doubles, the New Zealand pair of Daniel Shirley and John Gordon are ranked number one and have a world ranking of 17, while in the women's, Rebecca Bellingham and Rachel Hindley are second seeds behind the Malaysians Pek Siah Lim and Hooi Yee Chor.

Tournament director Julie Carrel said there is an unknown quantity to the tournament, because nothing like it has taken place in New Zealand, but she has every confidence it will be a success.

"The International Badminton Federation wants to push badminton's profile throughout Oceania and has been very supportive with this tournament.

"Whenever Peter [Dunne, Badminton NZ CEO] and I travel overseas, we are always trying to increase the profile of badminton over here."

She said the unprecedented success of mixed badminton pair Dan Shirley and Sara Runesten-Petersen at the IBF World Championships in Los Angeles - they have now reached the semifinals, further than any other New Zealander has managed - will do wonders for the game at the grass-roots level and believes their form will continue through to the Open next week.

"They are the top seeds in the doubles and, with their profile, who knows."

The fifth-most popular sport in the world, badminton in New Zealand garners most of its support in the Auckland area, mainly with a large number of Asian players.

"With Auckland's large Asian population, a lot of those players follow the world rankings, so we expect there to be a lot of interest for the tournament.

"As the tournament grows and becomes more successful, we hope that by 2008 it will become a two star event," Carrel said.

"The effect of this will be two-fold," she said.

New Zealand players will be able to improve their world rankings, giving them more favourable draws in upcoming tournaments such as the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

The increase in prize money will attract higher ranked players, something this tournament has failed to do.

However, this will only become possible if Badminton NZ can find more sponsorship money, which is where the lifeblood of any future tournament lies.

For now, though, the focus is on the present and the successful running of the inaugural tournament - which runs from August 23 to August 28 at the Auckland Badminton Hall.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY