Dubai
Indian expats in the UAE will be waiting with bated breath to see their favourite badminton stars in action following a historic double at the China Open recently. India’s highest-ranked shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal are now on the verge of storming into the season-ending BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Finals, to be held at the Hamdan Sports Complex from December 17-21.
Only the top eight players in the official BWF Destination Dubai Rankings after the conclusion of the 12th event, the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open which runs until 23 November 2014, will qualify for the Superseries Finals; which will see competition in singles, doubles and mixed doubles categories. The Indian shuttlers’ victories have pushed both players into a good position to qualify, with Srikanth’s win moving him up from ninth to sixth place in the men’s race and Saina moving up from sixth to fifth in the women’s.
A last-eight progression in Hong Kong should all but book the two Indians’ tickets for Dubai. Srikanth’s main threats come in the form of seventh-placed Dane Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and eighth-placed Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto, while ninth-ranked Japanese Kenichi Tago and 10th-placed Hu Yun of Hong Kong will need to stage an upset in Hong Kong to make the cut.
Saina, meanwhile, will have to hold off the next sixth-placed Korean Sung Ji Hyun, seventh-placed Korean Bae Yeon Ju; and eighth-placed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei to confirm her place in Dubai.
Held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council, the World Superseries Finals are to be staged in Dubai each December until 2017 as part of a four-year partnership, facilitated by Falcon and Associates, in partnership with the Dubai Sports Council with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
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Tickets on sale
Tickets for December’s BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Finals are on sale at www.ticketmaster.ae. Prices start from Dh20, with those under 18 years entering for free when accompanied by a ticketed adult.
