Dubai: Denmark’s Peter Gade, one of the legends of badminton, has predicted a close and exciting competition as Dubai plays host to the BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Finals at the Hamdan Sports Complex from Wednesday.
With a whopping purse of $1 million (approximately Dh3.67 million) on offer, most of the top shuttlers are presently in Dubai for the December 17-21 competition that rewards consistency through the season, like the men’s and women’s tennis Tours through their year-ending finals.
Actual group stage competition will get under way at 9 am on Wednesday in five categories, the men and women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the specially set-up badminton courts at the 15,000-seater Hamdan Sports Complex.
The players in all five categories have been divided into two groups each with all of them playing each other once before the top two advance to the semi-finals.
Gade, who celebrated his 38th birthday on December 14, retired from the sport following his quarter-final defeat at the 2012 French Open. But prior to that, he had an astounding career in the sport that included his famous All England Open Badminton Championships triumph in 1999 followed by five European Championship men’s singles titles to be at the pinnacle of men’s badminton from 1998 to 2001. With his 22 Grand Prix titles, Gade became one of the sport’s most successful players.
In Dubai for the BWF finale, he assessed a tough and exciting competition in all five categories. “The Chinese ladies are the favourites for the singles, but there is Saina [Nehwal] who is almost at home here. It will be an open affair in both the women’s groups, and a lot of things could happen. It is going to be close and exciting,” Gade said.
In the men’s singles, the Dane backed China’s Chen Long to go all the way. “Group A is the group of death. We all know what Kenichi [Tago] is capable of, but I would still back Chen to come through,” he said.
“In Group B, [Kidambi] Srikanth will be at home with the crowd support. In addition he has been having a great run lately. I would of course be hoping for my countryman [Jan O Jorgensen] to live up to his ranking and come through,” Gade added.
Action will get under way at 9 am on Wednesday. On the first three days, matches will be held in three sessions with the first at 9 am followed by two more at 1 pm and 7 pm. The semi-finals will be held in two sessions, at 1 pm and 7pm on Saturday, The finals will also be in two sessions, with 2.30 pm and 8 pm starts on Sunday.
