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Leading players from 12 nations will take to the courts today for the Bahrain Air Bahrain International Badminton Series 2009, being organised by the Indian Club in conjunction with the Bahrain Badminton & Squash Federation.
The tournament, which runs until December 6 at the newly-refurbished Indian Club badminton hall and sponsored by Bahrain Air for the second year in succession, is sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation and the Badminton Asia Confederation.
This tournament is one of the largest of its kind organised by an expatriate community and the biggest in the Middle East. It features competition in five categories - men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles with 34 players in the fray for men's singles, 10 in women's singles, 19 in men's doubles, eight in women's doubles and 14 in mixed doubles.
Top players from India, Jordan, Iran, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Philippines, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, UAE and hosts Bahrain will be battling it out for pride and prestige apart from a share of the $5,000 prize money on offer.
Iran's Shahhosseini Ali, who is ranked 107 in the world, is the top seed in the men's section while 174-ranked Hadia Hosny of Egypt gets pride of place in the women's draw.
Bahrain will be pinning its hopes on its top player and national team member Jaffer Ebrahim, who has a world ranking of 365. He is seeded fourth behind two more Iranians second seed Kheradmandi Mohammad Reza and third seed Khanjani Mohammad Reza, who are ranked 152 and 347 in the world respectively.
Amiripour Negin from Iran with a world ranking of 192 is seeded second in the women's section.
IPS Trade Middle East is the major sponsor of the event, while McGrow Group is the golden sponsor and the co-sponsors are Alpha Fire Services and Olayan Kimberly Clark.
Meanwhile, the organisers held a sponsorship signing ceremony at the club, which was attended by Bahrain Air's director, commercial operation, Bart C J Schellens and executive secretary Ahmed J Al Binali along with the Indian Club president, general secretary, badminton secretary and other tournament officials.
Badminton secretary A C Rajesh said: "We have planned grand opening and closing ceremonies and are prepared to handle any situation. We expect a large number of badminton lovers to attend the event."
