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Li-Ning Seattle Badminton Open 2010, Feb 5-7
Seattle Region hosts its first major Li-Ning Sponsored Badminton Tournament.
SEATTLE - Tony Gunawan, 2000 Sydney Games Olympic Gold Medalist, 2 Time World Champion, and his partner, Howard Bach, 2005 World Champion, 2008 USA Olympic Team, took full control of the Men’s Doubles event from the beginning and finishing off with a convincing victory defeating Alvin Lau, Canadian Doubles Champion, and his partner Darren Hong in the finals. It was definitely the fan’s favorite match of the week attracting a full gym of people filling up the all the seats and bleachers with children and adults from all over the region. It was the first time that Seattle hosted several World Champions players, former World #1 player, including Huaiwen Xu, and several Olympians, including Raju Rai, for a high level tournament at the Bellevue Badminton Club. (also known as BBC)
“We are very gracious to have Li-Ning, a leading sports brand enterprise, to be a major sponsor for this event and very thankful for their full support to bring badminton to a higher level” says Jaikannan Ramamoorthy, tournament director. “Badminton is one of the most popular sports in the world. World famous badminton icon’s and roles models came to Seattle to compete. This gave our local children and community a new insight of badminton played at a professional level. Li-Ning and several private sponsors helped put this event together and we hope to continue to host this event at the Bellevue Badminton Club next year” Kenny Lu, Vice President of BBC.
With the help of Mike Yang, Li-Ning National Sales Manager, Jay Li, Li-Ning USA General Manager and Rick Soberanis, Li-Ning Director of Sales & Marketing, Li-Ning is looking to play a major role in USA badminton in the future. They are currently the Official Sponsor of China Badminton Team.
As for badminton in the northwest, it has come a long ways with Bellevue Badminton Club leading the way developing a junior badminton program that offers classes to children in a positive environment and community. This will help the children build confidence as they play more badminton. “We are creating a passion for life”, says Geoff Stensland, President of BBC.
There were over 135 participants and some traveled a few thousand miles from USA and Canada. Some of our local players with outstanding performances were Renata Baker, at 15 years old, reached the finals of the Ladies Singles. “It is very important for our juniors to have the opportunity to watch a high level tournament so that they may have the vision” says Huaiwen Xu (BBC Head Coach). Paz Ben-Sira, age 34, BBC Head Coach, nearly pulled an upset to the #1 seeded player, Kailai Zhang, age 20, losing 21-18 in the 3rd and final set of the Mens Singles Semi-Finals on Saturday evening.
The cheering and applauding of the fans for the amazing badminton matches during the Sunday finals is a positive sign that Seattle Open will return in 2011 with higher expectations. We look forward to it again next year.
FULL TOURNAMENT RESULTS
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