Star-studded Smart Badminton Asia Championships kicks off today

TOPNOTCH badminton action returns as the star-studded Smart Badminton Asia Championships blasts off on Tuesday at the Muntinlupa Sports Center.

High-ranking and bemedaled players from all over the continent and upstarts from host Philippines take the floor in the six-day event, which for the first time will have a World Super Tour 1000 Tournament classification.

Under this upgraded level, winners gain 12,000 Badminton World Federation ranking points while runners up net 10,200. The semifinalists, meanwhile, bag 8,400 while quarterfinalists get 6,600, Round-of-16 finishers take 4,800 while Round-of-32 qualifiers notch 3,000.

Team Philippines carries a modest goal in this competition, the players’ first since the pandemic broke out in 2020.

“This is the first tournament for the players so this is a good start considering they have the opportunity to play against the top players in the world, gain some experience and gain some points,” said the Philippines’ Malaysian coach Rosman Razak.

Carrying the fight for the hosts are Ros Pedrosa and Jewel Albo in men’s singles, Jaja Andres and Mika de Guzman in women’s singles, and Lea Inlayo and Susmita Ramos in women’s doubles, Christian Bernardo and Paul Pantig in men’s doubles and Alvin Morada and Thea Pomar in mixed doubles.

The high-level competition should serve the Filipinos well as they gear up for the Southeast Asian Games.

Slated to compete are world No. 2 Kento Momota of Japan, No. 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia, No. 7 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, No. 8 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia, No. 9 Lakshya Sen of India, No. 10 Loh Kean Yew of Singapore, No. 11 Srikanth Kidambi of India, and No. 14 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the men’s singles.

Women’s world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, No. 4 An Se-young of South Korea, No. 5 Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, No. 7 P. V. Sindhu of India, No. 9 He Bingjiao of China, No. 10 Pornpawee Chochuwong and Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand, and No. 13 Sayaka Takahashi of Japan banner the distaff side. —