Galaxy of stars descend on city for events
All top players have arrived in Thailand to prepare for the final three tournaments of the 2020 season, organisers said yesterday.
Among them are world No.2 Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan, and No.3 Anders Antonsen and No.4 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the men’s event.
The women’s stars include topranked Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan, No.6 Carolina Marin of Spain, and No.7 PV Sindhu from India.
They are in quarantine before taking part in the three tournaments to be held at Bangkok’s Muang Thong Thani.
“Isolated at the hotel to be ready for the tournament! Aislados en el hotel para estar listos para el torneo!” Olympic champion Marin wrote in both English and Spanish in a social media post ahead of the Yonex Thailand Open from Jan 12-17.
It will be followed by the Toyota Thailand Open from Jan 19-24 and the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2020 from Jan 27-31.
The first two events, both Super 1000 tournaments, offer a total purse of US$1 million each, while the 2020 season finale has a total prize fund of $1.5 million.
They will be held behind closed doors under strict Covid-19 protocols.
Unfortunately, t he events will be without big names from Japan and China.
All Japanese players, i ncluding women’s world No.3 Akane Yamaguchi and No.4 Nozomi Okuhara, did not travel to Bangkok after men’s No.1 Kento Momota tested positive for Covid-19.
The Chinese Badminton Association has withdrawn its team from the tournaments due to travel restrictions.
The Thai challenge will be led by women’s world No.5 Ratchanok Intanon, and world No.3 mixed doubles pair Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
The tournaments will be televised live on TrueVisions.