Int'l badminton meet from tomorrow

The Yonex-Sunrise Bangladesh Open International Badminton Challenge 2013 -- a third-tier tournament of the Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC) -- gets underway from tomorrow at the Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium with ten countries taking part in the five-event meet.
“We have earned the rights for the Bangladesh Open through bidding. The BAC are providing all the technical support while the Bangladesh Badminton Federation (BFF) is just hosting the tournament,” said BFF general secretary Jobaidur Rahman Rana at a press conference at the Bangladesh Olympic Association auditorium yesterday.
According to the speakers, some 100 registered shuttlers of the Badminton World Federation including 22 women from ten countries -- India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, Chinese Taipei, Maldives, New Zealand, Australia and Bangladesh -- will be taking part in quest of increasing their individual ranking that will make the tournament a competitive one from Day One.
Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei, who is ranked 31st in Asia, is the top seed in the men's singles, followed by India's Subhankar Dey (105), Malaysia's Yogendran Khirshnan (156), Sri Lanka's Dinuka Karunaratne (165) and Sri Lanka's Dharma Alrie Guna (186).
In the women's singles, Pai Hsiao Ma of Chinese Taipei, who is 24th in the Asian ranking, is the top seed while India's Saili Rane (77), Malaysia's Sannatasah Saniru (108) and India's Trupti Murgunde (126) are the next three seeds.
Among 14 shuttlers from Bangladesh in the men's singles, only three players -- Rais Uddin (1227), Saif Uddin (1467) and Anamul Haque (1467) -- have rankings and the others are not ranked at the Asian level while the four Bangladeshi female shuttlers have no ranking as well.
“Despite the political turmoil, we cannot let our young generation from going forward and this tournament will be a good platform for the young shuttlers,” said BFF president Rubaba Dowla. “We had an inter-ministerial meeting regarding the event where Police and RAB have confirmed they will ensure the security of the players on their way to the venue and back to the hotel.”
The tournament has a total prize money of 15,000 dollars.