Draws Released for Canadian National Badminton Championships

The draws have now been released for the nationals this week, with the tournament scheduled to run from early Thursday to Saturday afternoon. Now that the draws are out we are going to make our predictions for the events.

First off for the men’s singles event it should be noted that Bobby Milroy is not playing, therefore it is much easier to predict a winner since the likely clash of Bobby and Andrew Dabeka is no longer an issue to take into consideration. Therefore the men’s singles should more than likely go to Andrew Dabeka from Ottawa. He will most likely have to play Stephan Wojcikiewicz in the finals, but Stephan will first have to beat Kyle Foley who just recently won a triple crown at the Alberta Open Provincials. Also, Andrew is drawn to play Mike Beres in his semi-final, but honestly if Andrew can’t beat Mike Beres (who is playing in all three events) then he should probably hang up his racket.

Next up is the pathetically weak women’s singles event. With only 11 competitors, and no Anna Rice, it’s pretty sad. Charmaine Reid and 1 million time national champion Denyse Julien are the top two contenders, it could be interesting to see if Denyse can make it 1 million and 1. This could also be a good opportunity for Alice Man and Florence Lavoie to make a stand and prove their future worth.

The men’s doubles is definitely not as strong as the men’s singles. Will Milroy and Mike Beres are the top seeds, and are heavily favoured to win. Disappointing however is the fact that Jon Vandervet and Keith Chan are on the same side of the draw as the top seeds, as I would see them having the best chance of upsetting them. It would have been a good final to watch. I don’t know Francois Bourret, or his skill level, but I doubt that him and Phil Bourret will be able to defeat Milroy and Beres.

Strangely the women’s doubles has more depth than the women’s singles. Why aren’t some of these girls playing singles as well? It makes me think that the majority of our women’s players are just lazy. This is a hard on to predict since I know nothing about these players really. I don’t know who should win, but I predict a final between Charmaine Reid/Fiona McKee and Tammy Sun/Helen Nichol

Finally the mixed doubles, which may very well be the most open draw of all. Will Milroy and Tammy Sun definitely haven’t been playing very much lately. They lost to Kyle Foley and Helen Nichol in the provincials, and haven’t been training in the same city much. Mike Beres and Val Loker are the favourites this year in my mind, largely because they have actually been going to tournaments, so they are probably the most match ready out of all the teams.

Here are the draws