The event is the largest badminton event played in the oceanic region and, for many, it will be the last chance to earn qualifying points for the London Olympics.
More than 300 of the world’s best badminton players, including Olympic gold medal contenders from Austria, Brazil, China, Chinese Taipei, Egypt, England, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Thailand, and Vietnam will converge on Darling Harbour for the five-day event.
Redfern resident and badminton star Cheesun Choong said badminton may not be a mainstream Australian sport, but it was growing in popularity.
Choong began playing at age 11 and found his size made him ideal for the fast-paced sport. “Badminton is a lot about explosiveness. The distance to the shuttle is shorter than in tennis but you also have less time to get there. It’s a lot of stopping and starting and changing directions, which does require the explosiveness and power,” Choong said.
“In tennis you look at the top players and they are all very large and over 6"2 or 6"3, which shows the body type difference, but it is relatively smaller people who play badminton because of the extra speed and agility required on the court.”
Choong admitted that because of badminton’s relatively low exposure in Australia, it put him and other local players at a disadvantage during international events.
“Because badminton doesn’t have the same following as tennis it can sometimes be harder to find a large group of quality coaching, venues and players,” he said.
“The thing is, in Australia you will never play to this international calibre. There are sort of two sides to looking at it: if you get someone easy you can go further but if you get someone harder you get great experience but you get knocked out pretty quickly.”
The Yonex Badminton Open runs until April 8 at the Convention Centre.
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