220 players from 22 countries will participate in the 2014 Turkey International in Ankara. The 5.000 Dollars event will commence today with the qualification stage. The main sponsor of the tournament is Ankara Metropolita Municipality. Mr. Murat Özmekik, Badminton Europe Vice President & President of the Turkish Badminton Federation said:
''We are very happy to see so many participants and countries coming to Ankara for at last Circuit tournament of the year 2014. Our main sponsor will give 5000 pcs beginner rackets and nylon shuttlecocks to 5000 children. And we hope everybody will go back home with nice memories and start to play badminton.''
Turkey’s top female player and bronze medalist of the 2014 INTERSPORT European Championships, Özge Bayrak is the top seeded women’s singles player and one of the hot favourites to take the crown. “I am well prepared for my home event and I am ready for fight until the end .” She is also looking to add another trophy to her Circuit collection as she is aiming the title in the women’s doubles with her compatriot Neslihan Yigit.
Click here for the previous champions of the Turkey International
The 2014 Turkey International 2014 will see many high quality matches even in the early rounds of the competition. In the men’s singles, Austria’s number one player Luka Wraber, Maxime Moreels (Belgium), Nick Fransman (The Netherlands), Matthias Almer (Austria) and Kim Bruun of Denmark are all capable of winning the men’s singles crown. Players to watch in women’s singles are Özge Bayrak (Turkey) , Soraja De Visch Eijbergen (The Netherlands) and Neslihan Yigit (Turkey) and Lianne Tan of Belgium. In the men’s doubles, Milosz Bochat & Pawel Pietryja of Poland, Iikka Heino & Anton Kaisti (Finland) are the favourites. There is a good case to believe that Stefani and Gabriela Stoeva and Özge Bayrak/Neslihan Yigit will meet in Sunday’s women’s doubles finals.
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Photo by BadmintonPhoto