Almost 300 badminton players from more than 20 nations are to compete in this year’s Taipei Open to be held from June 20 to 25 at the University of Taipei Stadium, featuring Taiwan’s top male and female singles players Chou Tien-chen and Olympic silver medalist Tai Tzu-ying, the national badminton association said on Thursday.
Association president Chang Kuo-tso invited badminton fans to pack the stadium and cheer for the Taiwanese players among the 282 participants from 24 nations at a news conference ahead of the Badminton World Federation World Tour Super 300 tournament in Taipei.
Chou and Tai, ranked seventh and third in the world respectively, are seeking to defend the titles they won last year, with both looking for a fifth title at the tournament, where other Taiwanese competitors include men’s world No. 22 Lin Chun-yi and women’s world No. 16 Hsu Wen-chi.
Photo: CNA
Also participating in the tournament are Taiwanese men’s duos Wang Chi-lin and Lee Yang, gold medalists at the Tokyo Olympics, as well as Yang Po-han and Lu Ching-yao, ranked 16th and 15th in the world respectively.
The men’s singles is expected to be competitive with the presence of a few Japanese standouts — Kodai Naraoka (ranked third), Kenta Nishimoto (11th) and Kanta Tsuneyama (14th) — as well as world No. 15 Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong.
The top competitors in the women’s singles and men’s doubles not from Taiwan are Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan (12th) and world No. 7 pairing Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia.
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