Some of the best European badminton players already arrived in Sofia for their participation in the Babolat Bulgarian International, a Badminton Europe Circuit event with a prize money of 15.000 US Dollars.
 
A record number of 253 participants from 39 countries will compete in the Sport Hall "Sofia". Special guest at tomorrow's opening ceremony at 16:00 will be the Minister of Sports of Indonesia Roy Suri. At the ceremony a demonstration of the ancient martial art "Pandzhak power" by Indonesian martial artist in order to promote his sports community will be presented.

Petya Nedelcheva and the Stoeva Sisters (Stefani and Gabriela) will lead the 18-people strong Bulgarian team in its home event. "We have high hopes for the Bulgarian players and we are sure that after a good preparation they will succeed", said the President of the Bulgarian Badminton Federation - Prof. Dr. Puzant Kassabian.

If Marc Zwiebler (Germany) and Henri Hurskainen (Sweden) can confirm their seeding spot, we will see the remake of the 2012 European Championships final. Other players to watch out are Ville Lång (Finland), Poland's Michal Rogalski, Yuhan Tan from Belgium and Rasmus Fladberg of Denmark. Beatriz Corrales (Spain) is the top seed in the women's singles event. It is expected to see Stefani Stoeva and Petya Nedelcheva (both Bulgaria) to challenge the Spaniard on her way to the final.



The 2014 Babolat Bulgarian International kicked-off today at 13:00h with matches of the qualification stage. The finals will be played on Sunday.

The tournament can be followed via tournamentsoftware.com