Well the Canadian Junior Championships are underway again, and quite frankly I really don’t know very many of the players anymore. I’m sure that a number of you do know the players this year, and for those of you that do here is a link to the draws.
2008 Yonex U19 & U23 Canadian National Championships
My bet this year is Joe Rogers in the U23 singles, and Avish Makol in the U19 singles. That’s pretty much all I got, beyond that I really don’t know what’s going to happen. Good luck to all of the juniors!
So the entry deadline has past for the upcoming nationals at the end of the month, and after 2 consecutive years of pathetic entry numbers, this year actually looks pretty good. Here is the players list.
The only notables that are missing that I can think of right away are Andrew Dabeka, Charmaine Reid and Fiona McKee, otherwise it looks like it should be a pretty competitive tournament. Even guys like Mathieu Laforest are back in the mix this year after missing last year’s event.
No predictions as of yet really, except that Will Milroy and Mike Beres had better win this tournament or hand over their rackets for good, seriously. Also, Anna Rice had better win, same deal here, hand over your racket if you lose. All the other events I really don’t know about yet, I have been out of the loop to long to make an accurate prediction. Actually I’ll try anyway, here we go:
MS : Bobby Milroy def Stephan Wojcikiewicz
WS : Anna Rice
MD : Milroy/Beres def Laforest/Laforest
WD : who cares
MXD : Vandervet/Sun def Beres/Loker (gotta have one major upset right???)
We have been extremely busy lately working on the Yonex Canada Instructional DVD so the website has been extremely neglected over the past few months, however we are hoping to fix that by bringing on writers for BVM.
If you or anyone you know is an absolute badminton fanatic, and want to earn some extra cash, email us at info at vigormedia.com and hopefully you can start making some money writing about badminton.
Canada’s Will Milroy was the player of the tournament when he won both the mens doubles and mixed doubles titles with partners Mike Beres and Tammy Sun. Milroy and Beres had to play Germany’s Tesche and Cassel in the finals and won the match 21-17, 21-14. In the mixed doubles Milroy and Sun had to play fellow Canadians Beres and Loker in the final. Milroy and Sun won a somewhat bitter sweet victory as Beres and Loker are in a heated Olympic qualification hunt with Americans Bach and Lee who are only a few spaces ahead of them in the race. The final score was 21-15, 21-5 contrary to what the draw says (I got first hand reports from Tammy Sun’s brother on the score).
In the mens singles it was Malaysian Lee Tsuen Seng who took the title with a win over Japan’s Endo Hiryuki 21-13, 21-18. Lee had previously defeated Canada’s Andrew Dabeka 21-13, 21-15 in the semi-finals. Andrew is also in the hunt for an Olympic qualification spot, and should benefit greatly from his great results here and at the US Open last week. The womens doubles and singles were both won by Koreans with Hwang Yu Mi and Ha Jung Eun winning the doubles and Lee Yun Hwa winning the singles.
Full Canadian Open Badminton 2007 Results
Will Milroy (right) at 2006 Commonwealth Games with Philippe Bourret
So far Canada is doing pretty in Saskatoon, with Andrew Dabeka, Bobby Milroy and Stephan Wojcikiewicz all remaining in the mens singles draw and Anna Rice, Charmaine Reid and recent Royal Glenora Club addition Sun Yang all still alive in the womens singles draw. The doubles draws have yet to post any results at this point in time. None of the singles players have really been tested yet, but with Bobby and Stephan set to play each other next round things should get interesting. My prediction is that Bobby will win this one because quite frankly I want him to. Stay tuned for more updates on the Canadian Open 2007.
The Canadian Open is about to start (a couple hours from now actually) and it looks to be one of the best entries for an international event in Canada for a long time. Not since the likes of Hoyer Larsen, Camilla Martin and Yap Kim Hock came back in the 90’s has there been this level at a Canadian tournament (a Canadian tournament that was IBF sanctioned, the Badminton Revolution Cup however had better than this, but not as big). The tournament should be really exciting, unfortunately we will be unable to get out there to tape any of it, which is a real shame, but hopefully somebody does tape some. If you’re looking to see some of the draws I have posted a link to the draws at the bottom of this post.
With the US Open just last week, and a tight qualification race for Olympics, a lot of really strong players have decided to play this week. Some of these players include Lee Tsuen Seng, Sairul Amar Ayob, and Richard Vaughn in the mens singles as well as a number of Japanese and Korean players. This is a great opportunity for our Canadian players to get some valuable Olympic ranking points, so hopefully they can take some titles.
Wow, now that is a big upset. Ireland’s Scott Evans defeated Japan’s Shoji Sato 21-15, 21-14 at the US Open. I saw Shoji Sato beat Taufik Hidayat when I was in Tokyo for the Thomas Cup last year. This guy is no joker, he is a legitimate top 20 player, and Scott Evans is not somebody I would expect to beat him. Unfortunately for Scott he lost the very next round to Canada’s Andrew Dabeka in a very close three games 21-14, 10-21, 24-22! Scott is Ireland’s best player, maybe their best ever (according to Bobby Milroy he is). This will really help Andrew’s Olympic qualifying run. Not sure how big the US Open is in terms of points, but it can’t hurt to make the semis, even Malaysia’s Sairul couldn’t muster the testosterone to get this far (perhaps he is lacking some after going off of the juice, just speculating).
The American’s top doubles pair of Bach and Malaythong had the benefit of a good draw and top seed getting upset which has helped them to make it to the semis while Canada’s Milroy and Beres have been knocked out in the quarter finals. Also, Bach and Malaythong have the benefit of playing their teammates Gunawan and Rai who no doubt will tank the match to help their teammates. A similar situation in the mixed as well with Beres and Loker losing while Bach and Lee will be playing Gunawan and his partner in the semis. Hopefully Canadian Open will be better for our Canadian pairs.
If you are interested I have tracked down Scott Evans official website. He is an interesting character, with a serious temper on court. Also, my dad apparently played badminton with his dad back in the day in Ireland.
We are proud to announce that we have begun pre-production on an introductory badminton instructional DVD for Yonex Canada. Right now we aren’t releasing many details on the project except that we are shooting in HD, so the quality will be exceptionally better than a lot of the stuff we have produced in the past. We hope to begin filming sometime within the next 4-6 weeks. Stay tuned for more details regarding this exciting new project over the next few weeks.
Anup Sridhar defeated Malaysia’s second ranked player, Hafiz Hashim, in another three game marathon. The young Indian won the match 21-19, 18-21, 21-15 to book himself a ticket to the quarter-finals where he will have to play the tournament’s heavy favourite, Lin Dan. While Taufik was a big win, it is not altogether surprising that Taufik would be capable of a loss like this. However, Lin Dan is far more consistent in his performances than Taufik, and it is far less likely that Anup will beat him. It would certainly be a very exciting outcome to see, and would be a great boost to Anup’s career and confidence. Perhaps Anup can be the first Indian badminton player to win the World Championships?? Umm no, not very likely.
The other big surprise of the day was the loss of second seed Lee Chong Wei to Sony Dwi Kuncoro. Lee was clearly performing poorly as Sony easily defeated him 21-11, 21-9. Sony will now play Denmark’s hero Peter Gade who defeated Indonesia’s Simon Santoso. Denmark also has Kenneth Jonassen left. He will be playing Bao Chunlai in the quarter-finals. Finally China’s Chen Yu will be playing against Ronald Susilo in the quarter-finals as well.
Here is an interview from TrashTalk with the giant killer himself, Anup Sridhar.
