Thought the first qualifying tournament event for Tokyo 2020 deserves its own thread. BARFOOT & THOMPSON NEW ZEALAND OPEN 2019 30 APRIL - 05 MAY EVENTFINDA STADIUM, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND PRIZE MONEY USD 150,000 - Champions of 2018 - MS : Lin Dan WS : Sayaka Takahashi MD : Chen Hung-ling / Wang Chi-lin WD : Ayako Sakuramoto / Yukiko Takahata XD : Wang Chi-lin / Lee Chia-hsin Draws : https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=2E8D2F4B-98AE-4874-8222-77E7E2FFD0C6 Matches schedule : https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/matches.aspx?id=2E8D2F4B-98AE-4874-8222-77E7E2FFD0C6 @CLELY, looking forward to your post
The Road to Tokyo 2020 has officially begun. Let's buckle up our seat belts, ladies and gentlemen! This will be a one year long ride. Who will be leading the board by the end of this week?
How does the qualification work? Based on the BWF rankings or just like the WTF(accumulated all tournaments)?
Unfortunately, with many top rankers not participating (in men's singles, WR 1-5 are absent), this event is a bit of an anti-climax as a "first qualifying tournament". Well, I suppose that is only to be expected for a Super 300. Japan should take the WS and WD. Apart from that, the field looks fairly open.
Tournament website : http://www.nzbadmintonopen.com/ Tournament time-table : http://www.nzbadmintonopen.com/draws/schedule-and-results/ Prize Money Distribution Auckland time : https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/new-zealand/auckland-region DRAW (Excel format) : https://extranet.bwfbadminton.com/docs/events/3357/docs/New Zealand Open 2019 _ DRAW _Updated Tuesday, 09th April 2019_.XLSX LIVE-STREAMING : - BWF Youtube (semifinal & final only) : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChh-akEbUM8_6ghGVnJd6cQ - https://smashnation7.com/ Tokyo 2020 qualifying period (29 April 2019-26 April 2020) started with NZL Open that attracting some top names to take part and seek 7,000 point. Defending champion Lin Dan alongside with last year beaten finalist Jonatan Christie and Indonesia number one Anthony Ginting lead men's singles cast. Another familiar names to notice, Kenta Nishimoto, Ng Ka Long, Sai Praneeth, Prannoy and a bunch of upcoming players. Newly crowned Asian Champion Akane Yamaguchi and Saina Nehwal occupy top two seeds. 2012 Olympic Champion Li Xuerui, Aya Ohori, Zhang Beiwen and title-holder Sayaka Takahashi complete the interesting women's singles landscape. Barring any big upsets, Yamaguchi is slated to meet 2017 WJC Gregoria Mariska in quarters while last year winner Takahashi will be tested by Li XR at same stage. Japan makes strong presence in doubles disciplines with Kamura/Sonoda, Endo/Watanabe also world's women's doubles top three, Fukushima/Hirota, Matsumoto/Nagahara and Matsutomo/Takahashi. In mixed doubles, Indonesian combinations have good prospect to go further in this Super 300 tournament following top-seed Watanabe/Higashino had withdrawn. Their major threat will coming from Malaysian contenders Chan PS/Goh LY, Goh SH/Shevon Lai also the darkhorses Germany pairs. So many late withdrawals particularly in doubles department, Chen QC/Jia YF, Polii/Rahayu, Lee SH/Shin SC, Hoki/Kobayashi, Lu CY/Yang OH are among notable absentees. The qualification round is already over, two Malaysian MS Chong Wei Feng-Song Joo Ven also Indian rising star Lakshya Sen and 2016 WJC Sun Feixiang have secured their spot in main draw.
The BWF ranking lists of Tuesday 28 April 2020 will be used to determine the qualifiers. It will be based on points accumulated between 29/04/2019 and 26/04/2020.
Lin Dan will get his share of spotlight tomorrow on court 1, let's hope he'll keep up a better show than the last two tournaments
hahaha why put him at court 1, should put him at any other court without hawkeye, see how he response... lol
When the tournament organiser give full respect to the GOAT, he will give his best performance. Win-win for all.
I hope Nishimoto meet Lin Dan, I'm tired to wait for a match of Nishimoto that I can watch it. Win or lose, at least I can watch the match of Nishimoto.
Despite the absence of the top guns, it's still not a weak tournament for a WTS300 event that kicks off the OG Qualification cycle with the likes of Lin Dan, Anthony Ginting, Jonatan Christie, Kenta Nishimoto, Kanta Tsuneyama, Ng Kah Long, Tommy Sugiarto, H S Prannoy, Sai Praneeth, Brice Leverdez, Subhankar Dey, Lee Zii Jia, Khosit Phetpradab, Lu Guangzu, etc. In WS, we have Akane Yamaguchi, Zhang Beiwen, Saina Nehwal, Sayaka Takahashi, Li Xuerui,etc. Wait, I'm practically naming (almost) all the participants that can possibly upset any of the rest on their day. No offense for missing out some of them; however, as the race to Tokyo 2020 is on, nobody should be taken for granted, much less underrated. My worry is without IRS, we can expect any disputed linecalls to be animatedly protested. I can only hope BWF and the organizer are well-advised to ensure all the tournament officials, particularly the umpires and linejudges are on the ball.
Sun Feixiang did well at the qualies, beating first Koki Watanabe , the winner of both the Orleans Masters and the Osaka In't Challenge consecutively in Mar and April ,and then the established veteran,P Kashyap , to move into the main draw. In R1 he will play the 8th seed Thai Khosit Phetpradab, not an easy hurdle at all.
Oh, really, I forgot about it. Thanks for the info. That's great, IRS for TV Ct1 from the opening round.
Masuda Keita, Japan's National Team B coach who is accompanying the players, has the following to say as far as Watanabe Koki's subpar performance is concerned (source: Masuda's Twitter account). "We left in the early afternoon on Sunday and, transiting in Bangkok, took twenty hours to reach Auckland. We arrived at Auckland Airport just after 10:00 am yesterday, and at the hotel, after 12 noon. There, we had only twenty minutes after check-in, before having to leave for our training session. ... It was a really tough schedule, and I regret the fact that Watanabe Koki did not have a little more time to prepare." --------------------------- It is Golden Week at the moment in Japan, and this string of national holidays results in spiked travel costs. The NBA were obviously trying to keep expenses down to a minimum.