PV Sindhu wins Tata Open title

2nd seeded PV Sindhu overcame the tough challenge of surprise finalist Sayali Gokhale of Pune, defeating her in the closely contested finals by a score of 21-10 20-22 21-11 to grab the Women's Singles title at the TATA Open India International Challenge 2011 that was held at Mumbai from 14th to 18th Dec-2011.

Sayali had earlier overcame the challenge from 4th seeded Arundhati Pantawane, and PC Thulasi the defending champion who had won the Tata Open the last year, to setup a final clash with PV Sindhu.

With this win, Sindhu who has had a fantastic string of performances this year, having won several international titles, added one more title to her kitty in the form of the Tata Open International challenge title.

The men's singles event had a tougher field with several Indonesian players in the fray. Top seeded Alamsyah Yunus of Indonesia ended the challenge of 2nd seeded Indian RMV Gurusai Dutt in the finals defeating him 21-17 24-22. Arvind Bhat and Indonesian Shesar Rhustavito were the losing semi-finalists.

In the men's doubles Pranav Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar created a big upset by defeating India's top men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar & Sanave Thomas by a score of 19-21 21-17 23-21 in a thrilling final match. This surprise result augurs well for the future of Indian badminton which has long been dependant on the performances of only some of the star pairs in international doubles events.

The remaining two titles at the Tata Open-2011, the women's doubles and the mixed doubles, were clinched by Indonesian pairs. The Indian pair of Arun Vishnu / Aparna Balan finished as the losing semi-finalists in the mixed doubles event.

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Saina Nehwal wins Silver at Li Ning BWF World Superseries Finals 2011

World no.4 Saina Nehwal finally ended her mostly dry run of this year with a bang as she clinched the Silver medal at the Li Ning BWF World Superseries Finals 2011.

Saina fought well in the finals stretching her opponent the reigning world no.1 Yihan Wang of China to three sets before eventually losing 18-21 21-13 21-13 in the closely contested final match. Earlier Saina had defeated world no.5 Tine Baun of Denmark in straight sets 21-17 21-18 in the semi-finals.

The BWF World Superseries finals is one of the world's most prestigious badminton events in which all the top badminton players of the world participate.

Compared to last year when Saina was on a roll, this year was difficult for her, plagued as she was with lack of fitness and form. Her only notable title win of this year was the Swiss Open Grand Prix which she had won in March-2011. She had also won Silver medals at the Malaysia open grand prix gold and the Indonesia open superseries premier tournaments this year. But other than these performances, most of 2011 did not manage to bring much glee to her badminton fans.

However with this creditable performance at the BWF World Superseries Finals, she looks to have got back the spark again, and looks all set for a great performance at the forthcoming Olympics which is to be held in London the next year.

While Yihan Wang grabbed the Gold medal in the Women's Singles, Lin Dan also of China clinched the men's singles title.

The results in the doubles sections were also mostly in favour of the Chinese, with the pair of Xiaoli Wang / Yang Yu winning the women's doubles title, and Nan Zhang / Yunlei Zhao winning the mixed doubles gold medal. However in the men's doubles with Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark overcame the challenge of Biao Chai / Zhendong Guo in the finals, to prevent a clean sweep by the Chinese players.

Sameer Verma loses in Semis at BWF World Junior Badminton championships-2011

Top Indian junior Sameer Verma has done the country proud, by finishing in the last 4 in the Men's Singles event at the recently concluded BWF World Junior Badminton Championships-2011 that was held at Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) from 2-Nov-2011 to 06-Nov-2011.

MP lad Sameer Verma who had also won the Silver medal at the Asian Youth Badminton championships-2011 earlier this year was seeded 3/4 in the tournament. He stormed into the semi-finals defeating Ka Long Ng of Hong Kong 21-15, 21-16 in the quarter-finals.

The semi-finals was also a keenly contested affair where Sameer lost the opportunity of reaching the finals of the World junior badminton champion by only a very small margin. Top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark who is currently ranked no.43 in the world defeated Sameer 21-19, 21-19 in two closely fought sets.

Only one Indian, Saina Nehwal has ever managed to become the world junior badminton champion, and though Sameer could not manage to emulate her feat, still reaching the last 4 stage at the world junior level is a big achievement.

Congrats Sameer!

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Sameer Verma in Semi-Finals of BWF World Junior Badminton Championships-2011

Indian junior badminton champion Sameer Verma has reached the semi-finals of the BWF World Junior Championships 2011 that is being held at Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) from 2-Nov-2011 to 6-Nov-2011.

Sameer Verma, who was seeded 3/4 at the start of the tournament, has done justice to his seeding, having reached the last 4 stage of the competition with relative ease not having dropped a set so far in any of his matches. In fact, not only Sameer, but all all the top 4 seeds in the Men's Singles event have managed to reach the semi-finals and now will be vying for the top honour.

Sameer defeated Ka Long Ng of Hong Kong 21-15, 21-16 in the quarterfinals to reach the semis.

The World Junior badminton championship is held by the BWF (Badminton World Federation) every year, and is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious events on the junior badminton circuit. The championship is known to bring into limelight the stars of the future who will shine on the senior badminton circuit also.

Only one Indian, Saina Nehwal, has ever been able to become the World Junior champion. She has achieved this memorable feat in the year 2008. Sameer who had reached the finals of the Asian Youth badminton championship earlier this year is only 2 wins away from emulating Saina's feat. Whether he can manage to do this will be clear in only a couple of days.

In the women's singles India's major badminton hope P.V Sindhu went down in round 3 (the last 32 stage). She went down to Yuki Fukushima of Japan, who incidentally had also defeated her in the BWF World Junior Team Championships -2011, that was held just before this individual championship tournament.

While PV Sindhu lost track in round 3, Tanvi Lad managed to do slightly better, before going down in the last 16 stage in round 4 against the tournament's top seed and world no. 13 Inthanon Ratchanok of Thailand. Gauri Ghate was defeated in round 3 by seeded Japanese player Nozomi Okuhara who has reached the semi-finals. India's doubles challenge has also come to an end, and now the eyes of Indian badminton fans are focussed on how Sameer Verma performs in his next matches.


Update:

Sameer Verma loses in Semis at World Junior badminton championships-2011


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PV Sindhu wins Swiss Open-2011

PV Sindhu of India completed yet another fine run on the international badminton circuit today as she romped home to win the women's singles title at the Swiss International 2011 Open badminton tournament that was held at Belp in the Bern district of Switzerland from the 20-Oct-2011 to 23-Oct-2011.

She won the tournament with comfortable ease defeating Carola Bott of Germany 21-11 21-11 in the final match.

Sindhu has had a great run on the international circuit in the recent months having won the Maldives International Challenge badminton tournament in June, followed up by a title win at the Indonesia International Challenge in July. And earlier this month, she had also won the Silver medal at the Dutch Open-2011.

16 year old P.V. Sindhu, is currently ranked No.59 in the world, and this title win at the Swiss Open ensures that she will rise further up in the world rankings, when the list is updated in the coming week.

Another good performance for India in the women's singles event of the Swiss Open was from Sayali Gokhale who performed well in this tournament to reach upto the semi-finals before losing to Carola 14-21 24-26 in a closely fought match.

Also very satisfying for Indian badminton fans was the performance of the Indian doubles pairs who won even more medals at the event.

Prajakta Sawant & Pradnya Gadre win Gold

India's women's doubles pair of Pradnya Gadre and Prajakta Sawant won their first major title on the international badminton circuit as they won the Swiss title defeating French pair of Laura Choinet and Audrey Fontaine 19-21 21-10 21-10 in the finals.

Pranav Chopra & Akshay Dewalkar win Silver

India's men's doubles pair of Pranav Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar did well to reach the finals of the Swiss Open before finally going down 21-17 16-21 12-21 in the final match against the 2nd seeded Polish pair of Lukasz Moren & Wojciech Szkudlarczyk.

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PV Sindhu wins silver at Dutch Open-2011

PV Sindhu of India reinforced her reputation as one of the best emerging badminton players of the world when she clinched the Silver medal at the Yonex Dutch Open 2011 badminton tournament that was held at Almere in Netherlands from 11-Oct to 16-Oct-2011.

16 year old Sindhu started the tournament with a bang when she toppled the 4th seed and world no.22 Juan Gu of Singapore in the opening round with a score of 21-12, 21-19.

She proved that her first round win was not a fluke victory as she went on to reach the semi-finals where she defeated the tournament's top seed, the current world no.11 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand 21-14 15-21 21-13 in a thrilling match.

In the finals however P.V. Sindhu could not sustain the winning momentum losing to the eventual winner and second seeded Jie Yao of the home country Netherlands by a score of 16-21, 17-21.

The other Indian girl in the fray, Arundhati Pantawane, who also trains alongwith Sindhu at the Gopichand badminton academy in Hyderabad, lost in the 2nd round. Arundhati had recently won the Silver medal at the Yonex Czech International 2011 that concluded earlier this month.

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Vietnam Open 2011 badminton results

The Vietnam Open badminton tournament (officially known as the Yonex Sunrise Vietnam Grand Prix Open 2011) is currently being played at Ho Chih Minh City in Vietnam.

In the men's singles event, local boy Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam who is currently ranked No.7 in the world, is the top seed, followed by Sho Sasaki of Japan.

The Indian badminton players who are participating in the tournament are as below:

Women's Singles event: Aditi Mutatkar, Arundhati Pantawane, PV Sindhu
Men's Singles event: Ajay Jayaram, RMV Guru Sai Dutt, Sourabh Verma, HS Prannoy
Men's Doubles: Jishnu Sanyal & Manu Attri,
Women's Doubles: Aparna Balan & N. Sikki Reddy
Mixed Doubles: Aparna Balan & Arun Vishnu

The Vietnam open 2011 results for India have been quite good so far.

Women's Singles results: Stunners from Aditi & Arundhati in first round

Aditi Mutatkar stunned the current world no.24 and 4th seeded Ai Goto of Japan 21-18 14-21 21-16 in the first round. At the same time Arundhati Pantawane stunned 5th seed and world no.25 Juan Gu of Singapore 21-18 12-21 21-14.

PV Sindhu also booked her place in the next round by defeating Shih Han Hung of Taiwan 22-24 25-23 21-19  in a thrilling match that could have gone either way.

Men's Singles results: Ajay, GuruSai progress

In the men's singles 12th seeded RMV GuruSai Dutt has reached the quarterfinals. He defeated 7th seed Jen Hao Hsu of Taiwan in the 3rd round 21-10 17-21 21-19 to reach the quarters of the Vietnam open.

5th seed Ajay Jayaram fresh from his recent performances at the World badminton championship held earlier this month, has also reached the 3rd round and will be playing against Jong Woo Yim of Korea for a place in the quarterfinal round.

HS Prannoy however lost in the 2nd round against world no.32 Alamsyah Yunus of Indonesia who is seeded 4th in the tournament. Sourabh Verma lost in the first round against Yun Lung Chan of Hong Kong.

Men's and Women's Doubles results: Indian challenge ends

In the women's doubles, the Indian pair of Aparna & Sikki Reddy reached the 2nd round with ease, however could not progress any further as they were defeated by the 5th seeded Indonesian pair of Anneke Feinya Agustin / Nitya Krishinda Maheswari.

In the men's doubles, Jishnu & Manu Attri lost against Malaysian pair of Low Juan Shen / Jagdish Singh in the first round.

Mixed doubles results: Arun & Aparna reach 2nd round

The mixed doubles pair of Arun Vishnu & Aparna Balan defeated Calvin Jia Hong Ong/ Chiew Sien Lim of Malaysia 21-8, 21-14 in the first round. They are scheduled to play against Vietnamese pair of Nguyen Nhan Hoa Duong / Ngoc Quyen Phan Nguyen in the next round.

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World badminton championships 2011 results

(Note: latest important results of day2 and day3 are updated in the comments below)

The results of the first day were relatively good for India at the Yonex BWF World badminton championships 2011 being held at the Wembley Arena hall in London, UK.

Ajay Jayaram,who is one of India's top men's singles badminton player, played one of the best games of his career today, winning his first round match upsetting 15th seeded Kenichi Tago of Japan by a score of 21-12, 21-19.

The astounding fact is not only that Ajay upset Kenichi Tago, a player who is currently ranked no.18 in the world, but also the surprising ease with which he achieved this result.

In the first game, both the players were going to neck to neck till the score read 8-7 in Ajay's favour. From this point onwards Ajay broke away to take a lead winning a lot of points in succession, and maintained the momentum to pocket the first game comfortably at 21-12.

In the second game also Ajay continued in the same vein and at one stage was leading 11-2, and then later on by 18-12. However Kenichi fought back bravely after this, scoring a lot of quick points, and reduced the lead as much as 19-20. However Ajay Jayaram held on to his nerve to win the final remaining point to take the second game at 21-19, and progress further to the next round.

Jwala Gutta & Ashwini Ponnappa also opened their World badminton championship 2011 campaign on a positive note, by winning their first round match comfortably defeating the pair of Eva Lee & Paula Lynn Obanana of the USA, by a score of 21-9, 21-18, in just 23 minutes of play.

Undoubtedly inspired by these two wins, India's top men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar & Sanave Thomas then went on to defeat the German pair of Michael Fuchs and Oliver Roth by 9-21, 21-18, 21-17 in three tough sets, to progress to round 2 of the world badminton championships 2011.

The other Indian men's doubles pair of Pranav Chopra & Tarun Kona, however could not successfully meet the challenge of the Taiwanese pair of Hung Ling Chen/ Yu Lang Lin and were defeated 17-21, 13-21.

The other Indian players in the fray at the badminton world championships 2011 are India's top hope Saina Nehwal, P. Kashyap, and the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta & V.Diju who will be playing competitive badminton after quite a long gap.

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Amongst other important results of the day, men's singles top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia & Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia cruised through comfortably to the next round.

Malaysian badminton fans must be undoubtedly hoping that with the current form of Lee Chong Wei, he will finally end Malaysia's wait, and go on to become the first ever Malaysian world badminton champion.

A major upset result was seen in the men's singles on day1, as Kevin Cordon of Guatemala dashed 5th seeded Chinese player Chen Long's world championship title hopes, defeating him in a nailbiting finish 21-19 8-21 27-25.

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Badminton World Championship 2011 to start soon

The BWF badminton world championship 2011 tournament (officially known as the Yonex BWF World Championships 2011) will be held from the 8-Aug-2011 to 14-Aug-2011 at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.

The Wembley arena hall in London, is also the location where the next year's 2012 London Olympic badminton games will be held, and hence players competing for the Badminton world champion title would also be looking forward to getting acclimatised to the conditions at the hall, as a part of their Olympic games 2012 preparation.

For India, Saina Nehwal who is the main hope in this world badminton championship 2011 tournament, is seeded 6th in the tournament. Saina is also currently ranked at no.6 in the BWF world rankings which are updated every week.

Decent Draw for Saina Nehwal

The draws for the world badminton championships 2011 have been released, and Saina has got a bye in the first round and in the 2nd round will be facing the winner of the match between world no.53 Chloe Magee of Ireland and world no.31 Adrianti Firdasari of Indonesia. Adrianti who is likely to move ahead to the second round is a dangerous opponent who has the potential to upset any top player, and Saina cannot afford to be complacent if she is matched against Adrianti in the 2nd round.

In case Saina manages to get past the 2nd round, she could potentially play against 14th seed Pui Yin Pip of Hong Kong in the 3rd round. The subsequent challenges are even tougher for Saina. She could potentially be matched against 3rd seed Xin Wang in the quarterfinals, 2nd seed Yihan Wang in the semi-finals, and the top seed Shixian Wang in the final match which will decide who the 2011 Badminton world champion will be.

However all this potential tie-ups based on seedings is just hypothetical, and in reality all these top players who are playing at the badminton world championships have the potential to beat any of the other players on their good day. Much will depend on how players actually perform during the big matches. This is where temperament plays so crucial a role.

Indian challengers in the men's singles event - Ajay Jayaram and P. Kashyap

Amongst the men, the Indian contenders for the world championship title are Ajay Jayaram and P. Kashyap, who are currerntly ranked at no. 35 and no. 28 respectively in the world badminton rankings. Ajay is drawn to play against 15th seed Kenichi Tago of Japan in the first round, while Kashyap will be opening his world campaign with his match against Dieter Domke of Germany.

Indian challenge in the doubles sections at the BWF world badminton championships 2011:

Rupesh Kumar & Sanave Thomas currently ranked no.34 in the world rankings would be spearheading India's challenge in the mens doubles section. They will be playing against the no.29 ranked German pair of Michael Fuchs & Oliver Roth in the first round.

The other Indian doubles pair in the fray is Pranav Chopra & Tarun Kona ranked no.74 in the world rankings, who have got an entry into the tournament. They will be playing against the Taiwanese pair of Hung Ling CHEN & Yu Lang LIN in their opening encounter.

In the women's doubles, Jwala Gutta & Ashwini Ponnappa will clash against Eva Lee & Paula Lynn Obanana of the USA in the first round. If they clear this test, they will potentially be up against the 2nd seeded pair of Wen Hsing CHENG & Yu Chin CHIEN of Taiwan.

In the mixed doubles event, India's top pair of Jwala Gutta & V.Diju is seeded 16th in the tournament and have got a decent draw with a first round bye. Diju has been out in action for quite some time now (since the CWG games in Dec-2010 which he decided to skip for getting treated for a back injury). It would be interesting to see how the pair performs after such a long break from competitive match play.

All eyes will be on the World no. 1 - Lee Chong Wei

In the men's section, Malaysian badminton fans would be eagerly looking forward to the performance of their star player Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia who has a very realistic chance of becoming the first ever world badminton champion from Malaysia. He is currently in tremendous form, winning almost every tournament that he has played in the recent times.

By the way, fans are also looking forward to Lee Chong Wei's autobiography which will be released after this championships tournament is over.

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Singapore open 2011 - updates

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The Indian challenge at the Singapore Open 2011 international series badminton tournament, came to an end with 6th seeded Anup Sridhar losing in the semi-finals against Prasetyo Wisnu Yuli of Indonesia who defeated him in 3 games by a score of 21-10 18-21 21-14.

Anup Sridhar had also recently reached the quarter-finals at the Indonesia international challenge badminton tournament held at Surabaya in Indonesia prior to the Singapore Open-2011. He had lost to the top seeded Tommy Sugiarto in that match.

While the Indian challenge at the Singapore open badminton 2011, has come to an end, there have been some silver linings and some disappointments for Indian badminton fans.

Disappointing but not really surprising, was the loss of 2nd seeded Anand Pawar against the Korean qualifier Shon Seung Mo who defeated Anand in the 3rd round. Anand Pawar has not been in great form this year and has not won any significant title of note. For quite some time now, he has been hovering near the world no. 50 rank, and while this is a good achievement in itself, he is not moving any further up because he is not winning any major titles.

Encouraging was B Sai Praneeth's win over the top seed Wong Zi Liang Derek of Singapore whom he defeated by a score of 21-16 20-22 21-19 to reach the quarter-finals. Though Sai Praneeth could not progress any further in the tournament, his win over the world's no.50 player is significant and gives hope for even better showings in the future.

In the women's singles PV Sindhu could not recreate her magic of the Indonesia open which she won recently, and lost in the quarter-final round here at the Singapore open. All the Indian women in the fray, Aditi Mutatkar, Arundhati Pantawane, Neha Pandit, PC Thulasi, and PV Sindhu lost against higher seeded players.

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Badminton Set

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Here's yet another useful article related to Badminton Equipment, and this time round, we are going to have a look at how to choose a proper badminton set that's just right for you.

What should be included in the Badminton Set?

Here's list of the badminton equipment that is included in many of the badminton sets:

1. Badminton Rackets (At least 2 rackets, if not 4)

If you are looking for playing singles with a partner, getting a badminton set of 2 rackets should be good enough, and you can always purchase extra rackets separately in case you need them later.

On the other hand, if you intend to buy the set and use it for doubles play, then getting a 4 racket badminton set can be a simpler choice.

2. Birdies (Badminton Shuttlecocks) - At least 3 or 4 pieces

Shuttlecocks are not too costly, and having good quality shuttlecocks makes the game much more enjoyable. The badminton set that you are buying, would usually have at least 3 or 4 shuttlecocks for a start. You can always pick up extra ones separately when the earlier shuttles wear off.

If you are looking to buy the badminton set for recreational purposes such as for having casual games on weekends, or for picnics, then you can probably choose the synthetic shuttlecocks which last longer than the more professional feathered ones.

3. Badminton Net and Posts

Badminton sets can be mainly categorized into 2 types. Those sets that come with the nets and posts, and those that come without them.

There are several badminton equipment suppliers both offline and online, who offer only rackets and shuttlecocks for sale, but not the net and poles. This works fine for those people who just want to hit the shuttle to and fro with a partner for exercise or recreation in their backyard, without bothering about having a actual match game. 

However if you would like to play proper badminton matches in which points will be scored, then buying a badminton set with a net, and marking the lines of the court on the ground, becomes quite essential.

Badminton Nets that come with the badminton sets are usually of two types,

• Nets that can be fixed into the ground using stakes,
• Nets that wont need fixing and will just stand firmly on the ground on their own base.

The ones with stakes, will usually hold on more firmly to the ground, while the other types need to have quite a heavy base, so that they the net posts dont fall when the wind is blowing or when a players racket accidently touches the net. Also the net should be properly stretched over the net posts and should not sag. This is easier achieved with net posts that are fixed into the ground.

The standard net height as per the regular badminton specifications is that the net should be 5 feet 1 inch high at the edges, and should be 5 feet high at the center.

4. A sturdy and compact storage bag

This is for storing all the equipments that are included in the badminton set, both before and after play. Though this is not essentially a requirement, it can be a great help if you are going to carry the badminton set alongwith you for picnics or anywhere else. In such cases its necessary to choose a set that can be mantled and dismantled easily in the least possible time.

Having a good quality storage bag ensures that your badminton equipment is safe and secure at all times, when not in use.

5. Other accessories

Some other accessories that are sometimes included in the badminton set, include things such as a court-marking kit that helps to easily mark the lines of the badminton court on the ground.

Some suppliers also provide a separate pouch for storing the smaller parts, along-with a larger storage bag for the badminton kit.

Badminton Equipment - Standard Specifications:

It would also be worthwhile knowing the standard specifications of all the badminton equipment that will be part of your new badminton set. Professional badminton players everywhere in the world have to comply to these standards when they are playing in official matches and professional level tournaments.

Badminton Racket:

The total length of the racket should not be more than 680mm.

The width (of the racket head) should not be more than 230 mm.

The racket weight should not exceed more than 100 gms.

Badminton Shuttlecocks:

Type used in standard professional play: Feather Shuttlecock

Number of feathers in the shuttlecock: 16

Weight of the shuttlecock: 14 to 16 feathers

Length of the feathers: 70 mm in length.

Cork diameter: 25 to 28 mm

Diameter of upper periphery defined by the feathers: 54 mm

Badminton Net:

Net height at the ends: 5 feet 1 inch

Net height at the center of the court: 5 feet

Width of the Net: At least 6.1 metres wide.

Depth of the Net: 2 feet 6 inches.

Upper edge: 75 mm white tape lining

Mesh colour: Dark colored net cords

Thickness of the net cords: 15 mm to 20 mm

But why bother with standard specifications?

A valid question. While it is true that for recreational play, it is not necessary to select standard equipment, it is equally important to note that if the badminton set that you are going to purchase is of standard specifications it can also be a big help for those who want to do some serious practice to prepare for badminton competitions.

Also if the badminton set is going to be used by junior players who are learning the ropes of the game, then it is better that they get to play with a standard sized set so that they can develop better judgement skills in the early stage itself. In such as case, getting a professional badminton set that meets the standard specifications will be helpful.

Buying Badminton Set - Considerations: Cost Vs. Quality

You can buy cheap badminton sets for recreational play such as during picnics or during weekends. These sets will usually cost much less than 50 US dollars, will usually be of a lower quality and you cannot hope that they will last very long.

Nevertheless for those who dont intend to ever play professionally, can go for these cheap sets, bearing in mind that they will not last too long, and will have to be disposed soon. 

Some of the common problems you may have to face with the cheaper equipment is that the rackets may break during play, or the shuttles getting stuck in rackets while hitting, the net posts not standing upright or falling down when playing outdoors in slightly windy conditions, the net sagging too much at the center, etc.

The costlier higher-priced badminton sets that are for sale, will usually have better structural stability and the net posts will not fall down easily. The rackets will also be of a better quality, maybe not as good as professional rackets, but still good enough to play with.

Park & Sun BM-PS/ALUM Badminton Pro Set:

While searching for Badminton sets on Amazon, I came across this particular badminton set that is manufactured by Park & Sun who also make good quality volleyball nets.

When I saw the product listing today it also had 51 customer reviews, and most of them very positive. The common point that seemed to be popping up in most of those reviews was that this badminton set is very easy to assemble and dismantle.

When I checked further, I also noticed that what tops the customer reviews is the fact that, this badminton set is also currently ranked at the No.20 position on the best-seller list in the entire racket sports category. While I should clarify that have not bought this set myself, because I have no need of a set currently, you may want to take a look at it, and buy this badminton set from Amazon.

Other Accessories that are worth considering buying alongwith a Badminton Set:

While there are several other things that you can consider buying alongwith the badminton set, such as badminton grips, strings, wrist-bands, sports wear such as badminton shirts, more accessories such as water bottles, first-aid kits and related stuff, the singlemost important thing that I think worth considering is buying a pair of the best quality badminton shoes, that you can get. To buy shoes, simply walk into a good sports store and select good quality branded badminton shoes that fit you best.

Why wear Badminton Shoes?

Badminton shoes are specially designed to be worn by players when playing badminton, and are specifically designed keeping in mind the unique requirements of badminton players, which are not the same as those in other sports.

Badminton players are quite prone to ankle injuries that can happen due to the ankle getting twisted while jumping and running around trying to reach the shuttle. Wearing good quality and well fitting badminton shoes help to minimize this risk, and all professional badminton players make use of this advanced technology that's tailor made for badminton.

This article has turned out to be a bit too long. I hope that it has provided sufficient details that can help you to choose and buy the Badminton Set that will meet your needs.

Thanks for reading.

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Yonex Canada Open Results Scores

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The final standings/results at the Yonex Canada open 2011 badminton tournament are listed below:

Men's Singles results:

Marc Zwiebler of Germany got the better of World no.4 Taufik Hidayat the second time in succession in the past two weeks, defeating the Indonesian by a score of 21-13, 25-23 to win the men's singles gold medal at the recently concluded Yonex Canada Open 2011 badminton tournament.

Marc had earlier defeated Taufik at the US Open 2011 that was held last week, just prior to the Canadian Open.

Gold medal winner: Marc Zwiebler (Germany)

Silver medal- runner-up: Taufik Hidayat (Indonesia)

Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong and Japanese player Kazumasa Sakai were the losing semi-finalists.

Women's Singles - final results:

Canada Open 2011 Winner: Shao Chieh Cheng (Taiwan)
Silver Medal: Hongyan Pi (France)

Nozomi Okuhara (Japan) &  Tzu Ying Tai (Taiwan) were the other semi-finalists.

Men's Doubles - final standings:

 

Winner: Sung Hyun Ko / Yong Dae Lee (Korea)

Runners-up: Xiaolong Liu / Zihan Qiu (China)

 

Women's Doubles - result:

Gold: Shu Cheng / Bao Yixin (China)
Silver: Wen Hsing Cheng / Yu Chin Chien (Taiwan)

Mixed Doubles - results:

While 2nd seeded German Marc Zwiebler defeated top seed Taufik in the men's singles, his German colleagues in the mixed doubles, the 2nd seeded pair of Michael Fuchs & Brigit Michels came up with a similar performance in the mixed doubles toppling Taiwanese top seeds to clinch the Yonex Canada Open 2011 title.

Winner: Michael Fuchs / Birgit Michels (Germany)

Runners-up: Hung Ling Chen / Wen Hsing Cheng (Taiwan)

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Victor Indonesia badminton - Results/Scores

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While India's PV Sindhu surprised everyone by clinching the Gold medal in the women's singles event of the Victor Indonesia International Challenge 2011 badminton tournament, all the other titles that were at stake, were won by the Indonesian badminton players, who dominated in the final results and standings.

This international challenge badminton tournament was played from 19th to 24th Jul-2011, at Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia, and had garnered huge participation, with badminton players of several countries having taken part in the tournament.

The results/scores of the final matches at this Indonesian badmitnon tournament are listed below:

Women's Singles event - Final result:

Winner - Gold Medal: P.V. Sindhu (India)

Runner-up- Silver Medal: Fransiska Ratnasari Harisaputra (Indonesia)

Rising Indian badminton star 16-year old PV Sindhu, stunned the world no.35 and top seed Fransiska Ratnasari in the final match defeating her by a score of 21-16, 21-11 in just 40 minutes. This is Sindhu's second international title win on the senior circuit, her first one being the win at the Maldives open last month.

Renna Suwarno of Indonesia and Tee Jing Yi of Malaysia were the losing semi-finalists.

Men's Singles badminton event - Final Results:

Winner- Gold medal - Tommy Sugiarto - Indonesia

Runners-up - Silver medal - Yunus Alamsyah - Indonesia

The top seed Tommy defeated 2nd seeded Yunus 21-15 13-21 21-15 in 3 sets in the final match, to become the Victor Indonesia international challenge 2011 badminton champion. Hong Ji Hoon of Korea and Indra Bagus of Spain were the losing semi-finalists.

Men's Doubles - Results:

Gold medal: Rendra Wijaya / Rian Sukmawan (Indonesia)
Silver medal: Ow Yao Han / Tan Wee Kiong (Malaysia)
Also both the losing semi-finalists in the men's doubles were Indonesian pairs.

Women's Doubles - result:

Both the gold and silver were grabbed by Indonesian badminton players, defeating Japanese and Korean pairs in the semi-finals.

Winner: Della Destiara Haris / Suci Rizki Andini
Runner-up: Devi Tika Permatasari / Keshya Nurvita Hanadia 

Mixed Doubles - results:

Indonesia dominated the mixed doubles badminton event also with all 4 top slots being taken by pairs from the host nation.

Gold medal Winner: Andhika Anhar / Keshya Nurvita Hanadia
Runner-ups: Rendra Wijaya / Maria Elfira Christina

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PV Sindhu wins Indonesia badminton

PV Sindhu, India's rising junior badminton star, scripted a new chapter in Indian badminton history today, as she went on to win the Victor Indonesia International Challenge 2011 badminton tournament that was held at Surabaya in East Java Indonesia from 19-Jul-2011 to 24-Jul-2011.

Sindhu grabbed the gold medal in the women's singles event, by defeating the top seed and world no.35 Fransiska Ratnasari of Indonesia  by a score of 21-16, 21-11, in the final match that lasted for just 40 minutes.

With this win at the finals of the Indonesia open badminton, P.V. Sindhu has achieved her second consecutive title win on the trot, at the senior international badminton circuit, her first one being the title finish at the Maldives open last month, when she had defeated PC Thulasi in the finals to lift the trophy.

India had sent a large contingent for this Indonesian International challenge badminton tournament, comprising of players such as National champion Aditi Mutatkar, National Games Gold and Silver medallists Arundhati Pantawane and PC Thulasi in the women's singles, and top players such as Anup Sridhar and Anand Pawar in the men's singles event.

However PV Sindhu, fresh from her last month's Maldives win, and her recent semi-final finish at the Asian Youth tournament at Lucknow earlier this month, was the one to steal all the lime-light as she made short work of most of her opponents, to clinch the Gold medal at this Indonesian Open 2011. 

What makes her achievement shine out even more, is that except for the women's singles event, all the other titles that were at stake at the Victor Indonesia open, were bagged by Indonesian badminton players.

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Victor Indonesia open badminton - PV Sindhu storms into finals

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16-year old PV Sindhu of India stormed into the finals of the ongoing Victor Indonesia International Challenge 2011 badminton tournament, crushing her opponent in the semi-finals 12th seed Tee Jing Yi of Malaysia by a score of 21-8, 21-12.

She will next play in the final match against the tournament's top seed Fransiska Ratnasari Harisaputra of Indonesia, who defeated fellow Indonesian player Renna Suwarno by a score of 21-18, 21-17 in the other semi-final.

A lot of parallels have been drawn by several experts, between rising junior player PV Sindhu, who reached the quarterfinals of the World Junior badminton championships last year, and India's top badminton player Saina Nehwal, both of whom incidentally train at the same place, the Gopichand badminton academy in Hyderabad.

It may be recalled that Saina Nehwal had won her first senior international title, the Phillipines Open, at the age of 16, and with this march-up to the finals of the Victor Indonesia Open badminton tournament, PV Sindhu today stands close to her second international title win of this year, her first being the Maldives Open in June last month.

However this is easier said than done. Fransiska is currently ranked no. 35 in the badminton world rankings compared to P.V. Sindhu's ranking of 144, and it wont be an easy match for Sindhu and it remains to be seen how she meets the challenge tomorrow on her big day.

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Jwala Gutta selected for Arjuna award

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India's top doubles badminton player Jwala Gutta has finally been selected for the prestigious Arjuna award that is given by the Indian government, for excellence in the sporting field.

Jwala who had won the gold medal at the Commonwealth games in 2010, in the women's doubles badminton event partnering with Ashwini Ponnappa, is happy with her nomination, and dedicated the award to her family.

The pair of Jwala & Ashwini is currently ranked No.22 in the World badminton rankings. Alongwith playing in the women's doubles events, Jwala also pairs with Valiyaveetil Diju in the mixed doubles and they are currently ranked No.46 as per the world badminton rankings.

(It may be noted that Jwala Gutta-V.Diju have recently lost some ground in the world rankings as Diju is still recovering from a back injury and has been out of action since the Commonwealth games-2010. They were earlier ranked in the top 10 pairs of the world)

Other than being the winner of the CWG gold medal, Jwala Gutta also has had good success earlier on the international badminton circuit, such as winning the Bulgaria Open Grand Prix, the Bitzburger Open, the Dutch Open GP in 2008, and reaching the finals of the mixed doubles event in the World Super Series Masters Finals that was held in Malaysia in 2009.

About Arjuna Award:

The Arjuna award, named after 'Arjuna' the warrior archer of the Mahabharat epic, is a prestigious award that is given to talented sportspersons in India, for excellence in the field of sports. It is next in stature only to the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, which is India's highest sporting honour.

The Arjuna award carries with it, a cash prize of Rs. 5 lacs, a statuette, and a scroll of honour is also given to all the Arjuna awardees.

The earlier Arjuna awardees in badminton are listed below:

1961- Nandu Natekar
1962- Meena Shah
1965- Dinesh Khanna
1967- Suresh Goel
1969- Dipu Ghosh
1970- Damayanti Tambay
1971- Shobha Moorthy
1972- Prakash Padukone
1974- Raman Ghosh
1975- Davinder Ahuja
1976- Ami Ghia
1977-78- Kanwal Thakur Singh
1980-81- Syed Modi
1982- Partho Ganguli
1982 - Madhumita Bisht
1991- Rajeev Bagga
2000- Pullela Gopichand
1999- George Thomas
2003- Madasu Srinivas Rao (Physically Challenged category)
2004- Abhinn Shyam Gupta
2005- Aparna Popat
2006- Chetan Anand
2006- Rohit Bhakar (Physically Challenged category)
2008- Anup Sridhar
2009- Saina Nehwal

Jwala Gutta's name will get added to this Arjuna awardee list soon, has said that the award is a motivatation for her to do even better at the forthcoming World Championships that are going be held in London in August-2011.

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Victor Indonesia Open badminton 2011: PV Sindhu storms into Semi-Finals

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There was a heartening result today for India, at the Indonesia badminton tournament, and one that augurs well for the future of Indian badminton.

India's rising badminton star PV Sindhu who just turned 16 earlier this month, has reached the semi-finals at the ongoing Victor Indonesia Open International Challenge 2011 badminton tournament, that is being held at Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia from 19-Jul-2011 to 24-Jul-2011.

Unseeded P.V. Sindhu, got the better of 8th seeded Zhang Beiwen of Singapore in the quarterfinal round defeating her in 3 sets, 21-23 21-14 21-9. She will next play against 12th seeded Tee Jing Yi of Malaysia in the semi-final round match.

While Sindhu reached the semis, the other remaining hope for India in the women's singles, reigning national badminton champion Aditi Mutatkar lost against 12th seeded Tee Jing Yi of Malaysia. Tee Ying Ji beat Aditi in a close match by a score of 21-15 20-22 21-15. It remains to be seen how Sindhu tackles the Malaysian tomorrow.

PV Sindhu (Pusarla Venkat Sindhu) who currently trains at the Gopichand badminton academy in Hyderabad, is the daughter of former international volleyball players Arjuna awardee P.V. Ramana, and P. Vijaya. Her parents must be really proud of their daugther today, who at the age of just 16 years, is already creating a few waves on the u-19 as well as the International senior badminton circuits.

Sindhu also recently had a good run at the Asian Youth under-19 badminton championships, where she had reached the semi-finals of the women's singles.

It may not be out of context here to recall that Saina Nehwal's success was also on similar lines, and she too had made her mark on the senior circuit from a very young age.

In the other women's singles semi-final match that will be played tomorrow, top seed Fransiska Ratnasari Harisaputra of Indonesia will clash with fellow Indonesian player Renna Suwarno. Unseeded Renna ousted 4th seed Nitachon Jindapol of Thailand to set up the semi-final clash with Fransiska.

In the men's singles, 8th seeded Anup Sridhar, who was India's last remaining hope in the men's singles, lost in the quarter-finals against top seed Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia. The current world no.25 Tommy defeated world no.100 Anup by a score of 21-19, 21-15.

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Yonex Canada Open badminton 2011 updates

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Results at the Yonex Canada Open badminton tournament that is currently being played at Richmond in British Columbia, Canada from 19-Jul-2011 to 24-Jul-2011, are more or less going on expected lines so far.

In the men's singles, top seed and world no.4 Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia and second seeded Marc Zwiebler of Germany, have cruised through to the quarter-finals.

Out of the top 8 seeds in the men's singles event of the Canada open, 7 have reached the quarter-finals, the only exception being the no.5 seed Frenchman Brice Leverdez who lost against the Japanese badminton player Kazumasa Sakai.

Indians Chetan Anand & RMV Guru Sai Dutt lost their way in the 3rd round, losing against seeded players. While former national badminton champion of India, Chetan lost against 4th seed Pablo Abian of Spain who defeated Chetan 21-17 12-21 21-10, the 3rd seed Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong defeated Guru Sai Dutt 21-8 13-21 21-12.

Local hopes of Canadian badminton fans were dashed when 11th seeded Stefan Wojcikiewicz of Canada, their last remaining hope in the men's singles, was ousted in the 3rd round by Guatemala's top badminton player Kevin Cordon, who is seeded 8th in this tournament.

In the Women's singles event, top seed Shao Chieh Cheng of Taiwan, and second seeded Hongyan Pi of France have reached the quarterfinals.

Recent US Open champion Tzu Ying Tai of Taiwan who is earning the reputation of being a giant-killer has also booked a place in the quarters to set up a next round clash against unseeded Megumi Taruno of Japan. Megumi got the better of Japanese fellow player Shizuka Uchida to reach the quarter-finals of the Canada open badminton tournament.

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Victor Indonesia 2011 badminton-Results so far

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Women's Singles results for India

National badminton champion Aditi Mutatkar and rising junior badminton player P.V.Sindhu of India have reached the quarterfinals of the women's singles event at the Victor Indonesia International Challenge 2011 badminton tournament that is being held at Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia from 19-Jul-2011 to 24-Jul-2011.

13th seeded Aditi defeated Mega Cahya Purnama of Indonesia in the 3rd round in two straight games 21-11, 21-9 to enter the quarterfinals, while PV Sindhu had a tougher time defeating Indonesian Riski Amelia Pradipta 21-8 18-21 21-19 in 3 sets.

Aditi will be facing 12th seeded Tee Jing Yi of Malaysia next, while the unseeded PV Sindhu is drawn to play against 8th seeded Zhang Beiwen of Singapore in the quarterfinal round. Both Aditi and Sindhu are in the same lower half of the draw, and in case both of them are able win their next match, they can potentially clash against each other in the semi-finals.

The other Indian women in the fray, PC Thulasi and Arundhati Pantawane, silver and gold medallists at the National games badminton event held at Ranchi earlier this year, were defeated in the 3rd round, with Thulasi losing to 9th seeded Alcala Malvinne Ann Venice of the Phillipines 18-21, 21-23, and Arundhati losing to the11th seeded Japanese badminton player 20-22, 17-21. Neha Pandit lost in the first round against Indonesian player Yulia Yosephine Susanto.

Men's Singles Results for India

In the men's singles, 8th seeded Anup Sridhar is the lone Indian to have reached the quarterfinals. Anup defeated 14th seed Lee Dong Keun of Korea 21-17, 21-19 in the 3rd round. He has a tough match to play in the next round when he will be up against the top seed Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia. Tommy is currently ranked no.25 in the World badminton rankings, while Anup is currently ranked 100.

The other Indian men who had participated in the Victor Indonesia open badminton, Aditya Prakash, Prakash Jolly, Sarang Lakhanee, Sourabh Verma, B. Sai Praneet and Anand Pawar, could not progress to the quarterfinal round, with most of them losing their way in closely fought matches.

Women's Doubles updates

In the women's doubles event of the Indonesia international challenge badminton tournament, the Indian challenge came to an end as the Prajakta Sawant and Pradnya Gadre combine lost in the 2nd round against Indonesian opponents.

It does still seem that Indian badminton needs to focus a lot more, on improving in the doubles sections, as there is still not enough domestic competition visible, who can challenge the supremacy of the Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnappa combine in the womens doubles, or the pair of Jwala-V.Diju in the mixed doubles. The men's doubles also looks like a grey area too, with Rupesh Kumar/Sanave Thomas still a long way ahead of the other Indian pairs.

Updates from the Canada Open-2011

Meanwhile in faraway Canada where the Yonex Canada Open is being played simultaneously, both Chetan Anand and RMV Guru Sai Dutt have won their first round matches to progess to the 2nd round. However the doubles pair of Tarun Kona & Pranav Chopra lost against the top seeded Taiwanese pair of Chieh Min Fang / Sheng Mu Lee in straight sets.

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Yonex Canada Open-2011 starts

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The 2011 Yonex Canada Open badminton tournament is currently being played at Richmond in British Columbia, Canada from 19-Jul-2011 to 24-Jul-2011. All the qualification rounds have been played and the first rounds of the main draw will be commencing from today 20-Jul.

Many of the badminton players who had participated in US Open that concluded in the last week are also playing in the Canada Open tournament.

In the men's singles, World No.4 Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia is the top seed, while Marc Zwiebler of Germany who defeated Taufik in straight sets in the last week, is seeded second. They are followed in the seedings by Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, and the Spanish badminton player Pablo Abian.

Indian hopes at the Canada Open-2011, rest on the shoulders of young R.M.V. Guru Sai Dutt who is seeded 16th, and India's former national badminton champion Chetan Anand.

The major hope for Canadian badminton fans in the men's singles would be Stefan Wojcikiewicz who is seeded 11th.

In the women's singles, Shao Chieh Cheng of Taiwan is the top seed, followed by Hongyan Pi of France, giant-killer and US Open Grand Prix Gold winner Tzu Ying Tai who is also from Taiwan, and Ayane Kurihara of Japan.

The seedings in the doubles sections are as below:
Mens doubles
1. Chieh Min Fang / Sheng Mu Lee (Taiwan)
2. Ingo Kindervater / Johannes Schoettler (Germany)
For India, Pranav Chopra and Tarun Kona are participating in the mens doubles event.

Womens doubles:1. Wen Hsing Cheng / Yu Chin Chien (Taiwan)
2. Jung Eun Ha / Min Jung Kim (Korea)

Mixed doubles event:1. Hung Ling Chen / Wen Hsing Cheng (Taiwan)
2. Michael Fuchs / Birgit Michels (Germany)

While the Canada Open 2011 badminton tourney is being conducted, there is also another important badminton tournament that is being conducted during the same time, the Indonesia International Challenge 2011 which also has received huge participation with badminton players from several countries taking part to prove their mettle.

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Victor Indonesia International Challenge-2011

The Indonesian open badminton tournament (formally known as the Victor Indonesia International Challenge 2011) is being played at Surabaya, in East Java, Indonesia from 19-Jul-2011 to 23-Jul-2011. The tournament has got good participation with players of several countries taking part in the competition to prove their mettle.

The seeded players are below:

Women's Singles (WS):Fransiska Ratnsari Harisaputra (Indonesia) who is currently ranked no.35 in the world badminton rankings is the top seed followed by Tan Lianne (Belgium), Ana Rovita (Indonesia) and Nitchaon Jindapol (Thailand).

For India, the players who are participating in the women's singles event of the Indonesia open-2011 are Aditi Mutatkar (seeded 13th), Arundhati Pantawane, Neha Pandit, PC Thulasi and PV Sindhu.

Men's Singles (MS):
Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia, who is currently no.26 in the badminton world rankings, is the top seed, and is followed by Yunus Alamsyah who is his country mate, and then by Matthieu Lo Ying Ping of France, and Anand Pawar of India who is the 4th seed.

Indian players have participated at this Victor Indonesia open badminton tournament in large numbers, and those who are playing in the men's singles event are Anand Pawar, Aditya Prakash, Prakash Jolly, Anup Sridhar (8th seed), Prannoy HS, Sourabh Verma (9th seed), Sarang Lakhanee, Sai Praneet B, and Sonic Prabhudesai.

Women's Doubles (WD):
Top seeds are: Gebby Ristiyani Imawan / Tiara Rosalia Nuraidah
Second seeds: Della Destiara Haris / Suci Rizki Andini
The top 3 seeded pairs in the WD are from the host country.

The Indian pairs participating in the women's doubles event at the victor indonesia open international challenge badminton tournament are Pradnya Gadre/Prajakta Sawant and Shuti Kurien/Nitya Sosale.

Men's Doubles (MD):
Top seeds are:  Liu Yi / Yeo Zhao Jiang Terry of Singapore.
Second seeds:  Fernando Kurniawan / Wifqi Windarto from Indonesia.

Mixed Doubles (XD):
Top seeds are:  Viki Indra Okvana / Gustiani Megawati (Indonesia)
Second seeds:  Chrisnanta Danny Bawa / Neo Yu Yan Vanessa (Singapore)

After quite some time, India has sent such a large contingent for an international badminton tournament, and it is a good sign for the future, that young junior players like PV Sindhu have got a chance to gain more international exposure through this tournament.

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US Open 2011 Results & Scores

The US Open 2011 badminton tournament (Known as the 2011Yonex OCBC US Open Grand Prix Gold) was held at Orange County in Calfornia, USA from 11-16 July 2011.

The final match scores & results of the US open badminton 2011 are as below:


Results of Singles events at US Open GP Gold badminton-2011

Women's singles event - Final Results:

Gold Medal - Winner: Tzu Ying Tai (Taiwan)
Silver Medal - Runners-up: Sayaka Sato (Japan)
Final Match Scores:
Tzu Ying Tai (Taiwan) bt. Sayaka Sato (Japan)   21-16 19-21 21-6
The losing semi-finalists were Eriko Hirose of Japan, and Inthanon Ratchanok of Thailand.


Men's singles event - Final Results:

Gold Medal - Winner: Sho Sasaki (Japan)
Silver medal - Runners-up: Tien Minh Nguyen (Vietnam)
Final Match Scores:
Sho Sasaki  bt. Tien Minh Nguyen 21-17, 21-18


Results of Doubles events at US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton-2011

Women's doubles event - Final Result:

Winner: Jung Eun Ha/Min Jung Kim of Korea
Runners-up: Kyung Eun Jung/Ha Na Kim of Korea
Final Match Scores:
[Jung Eun Ha/Min Jung Kim] bt. [Kyung Eun Jung/Ha Na Kim] 14-21 22-20 21-18


Final Result - Men's doubles event:

Winner: Sung Hyun Ko/Yong Dae Lee of Korea
Runners-up: Howard Bach/Tony Gunawan of USA
Final Match Scores:
[Sung Hyun Ko/Yong Dae Lee] bt. [Howard Bach/Tony Gunawan] 21-9, 21-19


Final Result - Mixed doubles event:

Winner: Yong Dae Lee/Jung Eun Ha of Korea
Runners-up: Hung Ling Chen/Wen Hsing Cheng of Taiwan
Final Match Scores:
[Yong Dae Lee/Jung Eun Ha] bt. [Hung Ling Chen/Wen Hsing Cheng] 21-19, 21-13

(note: detailed results are available on the tournamentsoftware site)

The US open was a prestigious Grand Prix Gold badminton event, which is just one level below the Superseries level of badminton tournaments.

For the USA, Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan's finished with the silver medal at the US Open, ahead of opponents from several Asian countries who have traditionally dominated the sport of badminton. Their victory can possibly turn out to be helpful for the development of the badminton in USA and the American subcontinent, by attracting more people to this beautiful sport.


For India, the challenge ended in the 3rd round, when Chetan Anand and Kashyap lost their matches, with Chetan going down to world no.4 Taufik Hidayat, and Kashyap losing to the eventual runner-up Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam. RMV Guru Sai Dutt had lost earlier in the 2nd round against 6th seed Marc Zwiebler of Germany in 3 tough sets. Marc eventually finished as the losing semi-finalist at the US open.

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Iris Wang - Badminton

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Iris Wang is a badminton player from USA.

She is currently ranked No. 122 in the women's singles, and no. 27 in the women's doubles event. Iris partners with her sister Rena Wang of the USA in the womens doubles badminton event.

Some of the best results of Iris Wang at international badminton tournaments are listed below:

• Iris Wang teamed up with Rena to win the silver medal at the Peru International badminton championship in the year 2011.

• Rena and Iris also won the silver medal at the Brazil International badminton cup in 2010.

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Rena Wang - Badminton

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Rena Wang is a badminton player from USA.

Rena is currently ranked no.54 in the world in the women's singles and no.27 in the world in the womens doubles badminton event. Rena teams up with her sister Iris Wang for the women's doubles event.

She was not part of the top 100 players in 2009, but has been making consistent progress in the world rankings since the past couple of years.

Some of the best Results of Rena Wang in international badminton tournaments are as below:

• Rena Wang won the Peru International badminton championships-2011 in the women's singles event notching up 4000 world ranking points in the process.

• She also won a silver medal at the Guatemala international in 2010 in the women's singles.

• Rena won the silver medal alongwith Iris Wang in the Brazil International badminton cup in 2010. In the same tournament she also reached the semifinals in the womens singles event.

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How to choose a badminton racket

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How to choose a badminton racket is a question that is most frequently asked by players who have started to play badminton and are keen on improving their game and taking it to the next level.

There are so many types of badminton rackets that you can select from, that are manufactured by top brands that it is quite confusing for most badminton players to make a detailed comparison and choose a badminton racket. The most common solution opted for is to ask senior players about which is the best badminton racket.

However though experienced players can be of help, not all players agree on which is the best badminton racket, mainly because the different badminton players have differing playing styles, and not everyone is of the same playing strength. Hence opinions about which is the best badminton racket differs greatly, amongst players of all levels.

The fact is not all badminton rackets are suited for all types of players. And the only way to really choose the best badminton racket that suits you is to try out different rackets to find the best one for you.

Here are few hints that can help you to select badminton rackets:

#1.
The badminton racket that you choose should be of the standard specifications, so that is is acceptable in official matches and professional play. The standard specifications of a badminton racket are that the total length of the badminton racket should not exceed 680mm and its width (the width of the head) should not exceed 230 mm. Also the weight should not exceed more than 100 gms. Generally branded badminton rackets that are sold by reputable brands meet the standard specifications.

#2.
If you are in the beginner category, then it can be wiser not to buy a very costly racket initially. As your game improves, you will be able to better understand what choice of badminton racket you require based on your style of play. A very basic badminton racket, which is neither too heavy nor too light can be good to start with for a beginner. The weight of the badminton racket is indicated as 1U, 2U, 3U and 4U by most brands. The heaviest is 1U while the lightest is 4U.

#3.
Alongwith the choosing the right racket you should also ensure that you opt for a grip size that makes you feel comfortable while holding the badminton racket in your hands. Many players who have attacking styles and like to smash usually prefer larger grips so that they can grip the racket tighter, whereas many deceptive players who like to rally and play drop shots, like smaller grips so that they can turn the racket easily in their hands.
Also Stiffer badminton rackets give more power, but reduce control. On the other hand rackets having more flexible shafts give better control, but with reduced power.

#4.
Alongwith selecting a badminton racket of your choice, you can also get a head-cover or even a badminton bag for storing your racket safely when it is not being used for playing.

#5.
Last but not the least, your choice of badminton racket should be based on what suits your style of play, rather than what other players use. Because Saina Nehwal plays with the ArcSaber 7, does not necessarily mean that the ArcSaber 7 is the best racket for you. Or because Lin Dan plays with the Li Ning Lin Dan Woods N90 badminton racket does not necessarily mean that its the right choice for you.

This brings to me memories of that scene in the Harry Potter movie, where Harry goes to purchase his first wand at Ollivanders-the wand shop. The store-keeper who is a very experienced wand-maker shows him a few wands, and asks him to try them, before ultimately deciding on the best wand for him. The wand chooses its master, he says.

As with wands, so with badminton rackets. It is better to try out several badminton rackets before making a choice. With time and more experience, you will find those perfect badminton rackets that suit you.

As a parting thought, Buy a badminton racket that suits you, and one which you are comfortable playing with.

You can read more information about Badminton Rackets such as Weight, Grip Sizes, Stiffness and Flex here, alongwith a list of some of the famous badminton racket brands.

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Best Badminton Players of all time

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Here's a list of some of the best badminton players of all time. Listed are world champions who won the Word championships, as well as Olympic medallists, as well some other best players of the yesteryears. I have tried to make the list comprehensive, however its possible that I may have missed a few names.

Have listed the best ever world level players in the mens and womens singles events. Will be adding the list of top players in the doubles sections to this list later.

Best Men's Singles badminton players of all time:

Chinese badminton players have dominated the world scene in the recent times, however in the past players from Indonesia were a very strong force. Recently Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia is in great form and looks all set to become the next world champion.

The top badminton players in the world of past as well as present times are as below:

China: Luan Jin, Lin Dan, Chen Jin, Xia Xuanze, Sun Jun, Zhao Jianhua, Yang Yang, Han Jian, Xinpeng Ji, Jiaong Dong,
Indonesia: Liem Swie King, Taufik Hidayat, Hendrawan, Heryanto Arbi, Joki Supriyanto, Icuk Sugiarto, Rudy Hartono, Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Alan Budi Kusuma Wiratama, Ardy Wiranata, Hermanwan Susanto
Denmark: Morten Frost, Peter Rasmussen, Flemming Delfs, Poul Erik Hoyer Larsen, Thomas Stuer Lauridsen, Peter Gade Christensen
Malaysia: Lee Chong Wei, Rashid Sidek, Misbun Sidek,
Korea: Seung Mo Shon,
India: Prakash Padukone

Best Women's Singles badminton players of all time:

In the women's singles, Chinese badminton players are at the top of world ranking in the current times also, as they were in the earlier days. However there is increasing competition from badminton players of other countries such as Saina Nehwal of India, and from players of other Asian countries.

Top women badminton players of all time are as below.

China: Wang Lin, Lu Lan, Zhu Lin, Xie Xingfang, Zhang Ning, Gong Ruina, Ye Zhaoying, Tang Jiuhong, Li Lingwei, Han Aiping, Mi Zhou, Zhichao Gong, Hua Huang,
Denmark: Camilla Martin, Lene Koppen
Indonesia: Susi Susanti, Verawaty Wiharjo, Maria Kristin Yulianti, Mia Audina
Korea: Su Hyun Bang

The BWF World Badminton Championships are scheduled to be held in Aug-2011 this year, and should also be adding the names of some of the top badminton players of current days, after those championship matches are held.

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Badminton US Open 2011- updates

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The US Open-2011 badminton tournament (known as the 2011 Yonex OCBC US Open Grand Prix Gold) is currently being played at California in USA.

The tournament has been witness to some exciting matches and surprising results so far, with several seeded players getting defeated in the past couple of days.

Quarterfinal results - women's singles:

The spectators at the US Open badminton-2011, are being treated to some exciting matches that are going down the wire till the match points. The quarterfinal matches and the results were no exception, as is clearly indicated by the final scorelines of the matches.

Tzu Ying Tai (Taiwan) bt. former world champion Lan Lu of China 21-19 18-21 22-20
Eriko Hirose (Japan) got the better of 3rd seeded Thai player Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 21-19 22-20
Inthanon Ratchanok (Thailand) defeated 4th seeded Xuerui Lee of China 23-21 21-18
8th seeded Sayaka Sato (Japan) bt. Shao Chieh Cheng of Taiwan in a very close match with a score of 21-13 18-21 27-25.

Women's Singles Semi-Final Tie-up:

1. Tzu Ying Tai (Taiwan) vs. 5th seeded Eriko Hirose (Japan)
2. Sayaka Sato (Japan) vs. Inthanon Ratchanok (Thailand)

Surprisingly Chinese players are not in the semi-finals this time.

Note: Been getting a few queries asking about Saina Nehwal's results at the US Open, hence putting this note. There is no Indian participating in the women's singles event. Saina Nehwal as well as other Indian women are not playing in this tournament. Saina is reportedly practising for the BWF world championships which are scheduled to be played in Aug-2011.

Men's Singles Quarter-Final match results:

If the women's singles were close encounters, the men's singles event at the US Open-2011 has been no different. Top seed Taufik Hidayat was knocked out of the tournament in the quarter-finals by 6th seeded Mark Zwiebler of Germany by a score of 21-16, 21-15 in straight sets.

The other quarter-final results were as below.

Taiwanese player Hsuan Yi Hsueh bt. Kevin Cordon of Guatemala 21-23 21-14 21-19
Sho Sasaki (Japan) bt. Boonsak Ponsana (Thailand) 21-10 21-15
Tien Minh Nguyen (Vietnam) bt.  Chunlai Bao (China) 21-18 21-15

Earlier in the 3rd round of the US Open 2011 men's singles event, the Indian challenge had come to an end when Chetan Anand had lost to Taufik Hidayat 16-21, 7-21, and Parupalli Kashyap was defeated by 3rd seeded Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam by a score of 21-18, 21-10.

The Semi-Final matches tie-up in the mens singles is as below:

Mark Zwiebler of Germany Vs.Tien Minh Nguyen (Vietnam)
Sho Sasaki (Japan) Vs. Hsuan Yi Hsueh (Taiwan)


Men's Doubles Semi-Final Match Tie-up

The results in the Men's Doubles event have been good for USA, as their 7th seeded pair of Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan has made it to the semi-finals. Their run-up to the semi-finals will be of help to garner more local interest towards badminton in the USA, and help to draw more crowds to the stadium to watch the matches.

The pair of Howard and Tony is currently ranked no.17 in the world rankings.

The semi-finals will be played between:
Naoki Kawamae / Shoji Sato (Japan) Vs.  Sung Hyun Ko / Yong Dae Lee (Korea)
Howard Bach / Tony Gunawan (USA) Vs.  Hirokatsu Hashimoto / Noriyasu Hirata (Japan)

Women's Doubles Semi-final ties:

Wen Hsing Cheng / Yu Chin Chien (Taiwan) Vs. Kyung Eun Jung / Ha Na Kim (Korea)
Miyuki Maeda / Satoko Suetsuna (Japan) Vs. Jung Eun Ha / Min Jung Kim (Korea)

For Indian readers, who are wondering about the results of the Indian top WD pair of Jwala Gutta- Ashwini Ponnappa, pls note. that the Indian pair had not participated in the US Open-2011. Also Jwala and V. Diju did not participate in the mixed doubles.

Mixed Doubles Semi-final ties:

Hung Ling Chen / Wen Hsing Cheng (Taiwan) Vs. Shoji Sato/ Shizuka Matsuo (Japan)
Shintaro Ikeda / Reiko Shiota (Japan) Vs.  Yong Dae Lee / Jung Eun Ha (Korea)

Two Japanese pairs are part of the semi-finals in the XD (Mixed doubles). Japanese players, have by the way, managed to reach the semi-finals in all of the five events that are being played.

Related Articles: Next Post:

US Open 2011 Final Match Results
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Which racket does Lin Dan use

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Q. Which is the badminton racket of Lin Dan?

A> The racket used by Lin Dan is made by Li Ning and was tailor made specifically for him. The racket is called the Li Ning Lin Dan Woods N90 Badminton Racket.

The Woods N90 racket that is used by Lin Dan is well suited for his aggressive style of play. Li Ning, who supplies badminton equipment to Chinese badminton players, also manufactures several different types of badmitnon rackets that suit the playing styles of different types of players.

Related articles:
You can find a detailed article on badminton rackets here.

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Which racket does Saina Nehwal use

Q. Which is the badminton racket of Saina Nehwal?

A> Saina Nehwal uses the Yonex ArcSaber7 series of rackets that are manufactured by Yonex brand of badminton rackets. Yonex is also the supplier of badminton equipment for badminton players of India.

While the badminton racket used by Saina Nehwal is the ArcSaber7 racket, many other Indian badminton players also use other ArcSaber series of badminton rackets manufactured by Yonex, such as the the ArcSaber Z-Slash, ArcSaber008,  ArcSaber-9 and ArcSaber-10.

You can find detailed information about Badminton Rackets here.

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US Open 2011 badminton-updates

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There were a few surprise results in the opening rounds of the US Open badminton-2011 (Officially known as the 2011 Yonex OCBC US Open Grand Prix Gold) that is currently being played at California in USA.


Highlights of first round results - women's singles:

Tine Baun crashes out : In the women's singles event of the US Open-2011, the top seed and current world no.5 Tine Baun was defeated by Japanese shuttler Kaori Imabeppu who is ranked no.52 in world badminton. Kaori bt. Tine Baun 21-19, 21-15, and she next faces former world badminton champion Lu Lan of China.

Rena Wang gives Porntip a tough time:
American top shuttler Rena Wang, gave a tough fight to 3rd seed Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand. However the Thai shuttler survived the onslaught and finally won the match 21-19, 22-20.


Highlights of Men's Singles match results:

In the men's singles event of the US Open 2011 badminton tournament, 2 rounds have been played so far, and many of the seeds have already crashed out of the reckoning.

Chetan Anand, former National badminton champion of India, was in good form as he ousted 13th seeded Brice Leverdez of France in the 2nd round defeating him 21-18, 21-19. Chetan will next face top seed Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia.

India's RMV Guru Sai Dutt however could not score an upset win against 6th seed Mark Zweibler of Germany. Mark defeated Guru Sai in three sets 21-14, 22-20, 21-16.

Alongwith Chetan Anand, another of India's top badminton players, the 12th seeded P. Kashyap sailed through to the 3rd round, defeating David Obernosterer of Austria 21-16, 21-12. He is scheduled to play against 3rd seed Tien Minh Nguyen in the next round.

It was a day when seedings literally went for a toss in the men's singles. 8th seed Rajiv Ouseph of England, 9th seeded Pablo Abian of Spain, 10th seeded Kazushi Yamada of Japan, 11th seed Wing Ki Wong of Hong Kong, 13th seed Brice Leverdez of France and 15th seeded Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong all crashed out of the US Open tournament on a single day, losing to unseeded players.

Related Articles:

Quarterfinal results and Semi-final lineup at the US-Open-2011
US Open 2011 Final Results and Scores

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