The Victor-Rayan Sports Bahrain International Series 2015 badminton event got underway last night at the Shaikh Khalifa Sports City in Isa Town.
After the opening ceremony, the first matches in both the men’s and women’s singles competitions were held.
The opening ceremony involved many of the competition’s players, with their country names and flags on display. There was also a demonstration of Arabic dancing followed by the unveiling of a large shuttle-cock branded with the tournament logos.
The five-day event comprises world-ranking point events in men’s and women’s singles and doubles plus mixed doubles.
Some 100 top professional players from 17 different countries are competing for a total prize fund of $5,000.
The two largest squads in the competition were well represented on the opening night with Bahrain fielding eight men and one lady while India had six men. There were five Bahrain-India match-ups which all went the way of India, with the exception of a walk-over victory for Sanjay Jaimy.
Sponsored
The Victor-Rayan Sports Bahrain International Series 2015 event is sponsored by Victor-Rayan Sports, with The Mashtan Hotel and boomzbahrain.com supporting The Bahrain International Badminton Festival 2015 as official hotel and online media partners, respectively.
Results:
Men’s Singles First Round:
James Varghese (Bahrain) bt Chet Vin Wong (Malaysia) Walk-over; Sanjay Jaimy (Bahrain) bt K Ajay Kumar (India) Walk-over; Cao Cuong Pham (Vietnam) bt Rizwan Azam (Pakistan) 21-16, 21-19; Aditya Joshi (India) bt Randy Bacia (Bahrain) Walk-over; Murad Ali (Pakistan) bt Emmanuelle Umali (Bahrain) 21-3, 21-7; Sarang Lakhanee (India) bt Oleg Savatyugin (Uzbekhistan) 21-5, 21-6; Pratul Joshi (India) bt Stefan Cresto (Bahrain) 21-8, 21-13; Harsheel Dani (India) bt Joshua Yap Zhe Bin (Bahrain) 21-8, 21-7; Artyom Savatyugin (Uzbekhistan) bt Subhash Aroliveettil (Bahrain) 21-14, 21-14; Kay EE Yeoh (Malaysia) bt Amir Saeed (Pakistan) 21-17, 21-14; Abhishek Yelegar (India) bt Muhammed Munawar Abdul Kader (Bahrain) Walk-over.
Women’s Singles First Round:
Hadia Hosny (Egypt) bt Palwasha Bashir (Pakistan) 21-15, 21-15; Li Lian Yang (Malaysia) bt Mahoor Shahzad (Pakistan) 21-14, 21-13; Alesia Zaitsava (Belarus) bt Dorotea Sutara (Croatia 21-14, 21-8; Kristine Sefere (Latvia) bt Neha Jojo (Bahrain) 21-6, 21-4; Cemre Fere (Turkey) bt Menna Eltanany (Egypt) 21-12, 21-12.