Titanic clash expected at Celcom Axiata Malaysia Open 2017

KUCHING: The coming Celcom Axiata Malaysia Open 2017 badminton championship anticipates to see a clash of badminton titans, Malaysia’s Datuk Lee Chong Wei and China’s Lin Dan.

The tournament will be played at Stadium Perpaduan, Petra Jaya from April 4 to 9 and a total of 351 players from 19 countries are expected to compete.

Malaysia will be sending a contingent of 46 players, Denmark (24), South Korea (17), China (40), Hong Kong (16), Chinese Taipei (37), Germany (3), Thailand (20), England (11), Indonesia (53), India (32), France (1), Japan (24), Spain (1), USA (1), Singapore (7), Bulgaria (3), Russia (3), Egypt (6) and Australia (6).

“We are hopeful the two badminton icons (Chong Wei and Li Dan) will come to Kuching and participate in the event, of which the closing date for entries is March 11,” said Sarawak Badminton Association (SBA) president, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Husain at a press conference, here, yesterday.

The tournament is a top-tier World Super Series event in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) calendar with the US$600,000 in total prize money expected to attract the top 10 players in the world.

Abdul Aziz, who is also Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) vice-president, said Malaysia’s top doubles and mixed doubles pairs of Tan Wee Kiong-Goh V Shem and Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying were among the country’s players expected to compete in the tournament.

Under the BWF rules, it is compulsory for all top 10 players in every category to participate in the tournament, failing which they can be fined US$5,000 unless they have valid reasons.

“We thank BAM and BWF for giving Sarawak the opportunity to host this prestigious event and let us hope no one has pre-match injuries and the top seeds will not miss the game,” said Abdul Aziz.

At the press conference, he also announced that the tickets are now available at the authorised ticketing agents in Kuching, Sibu and Miri. The tickets are priced at RM20 on April 5, RM30 on April 6, RM40 on April 7, RM50 on April 8 and RM60 on April 9, which is also the final round.

The price for season tickets is RM175 and is valid throughout the championship, while students aged 18 and below can buy the tickets at 50 percent discount or for matches on April 5 and 6 only.

There will be a further discount of 20 percent from the listed prices for early birds who buy the tickets from now until March 20.

Abdul Aziz said those who bought the tickets would be issued with receipts and could redeem for the actual tickets from LEA Sports Centre retail outlets located in Wisma Hopoh, Jalan P. Ramlee, Kuching; Wisma Sanyan in Sibu; Imperial Mall in Miri and Parkcity Shopping Complex in Bintulu. - Bernama