Many high-ranked players, here amongst Kento Momota of Japan, have travelled to Calgary to fine-tune the shape for BWF TOTAL World Championships 2017, next month. And out of the twenty quarter-finals to be played at Markin MacPhail Centre, nine will have European entries.
Kirsty Gilmour from Scotland booked her place in the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix tournament yesterday with a 21-18 21-17 win over Rachel Honderich. Today, she faces the only seeded player left in the women's singles draw when she takes on second seed Aya Ohori.
Ronja Stern of Switzerland is the only other European women’s singles through for the quarter-finals today. Stern has made quite the breakthrough, making her way all the way from the qualifications. Joo I Jeon from Korea will be her opponent in the quarter-final today.
Fresh out of his victorious tournament at White Nights last week, Pablo Abian continues his streak by defeating Indian Abhishek Yelegar yesterday; 21-15, 21-23, 21-14. Kento Momota is in the same half as the Spaniard, but first Kenta Nishimoto (Japan) waits in the quarter-final.
Dutch doubles dominance
Seven Dutch doubles have tried their luck in Calgary this week, and many of them with successful outcomes.
In mixed doubles, Jacco Arends and Selena Piek will face the top seeds Choi/Korchae from Korea, that sent Maas/van der Aar (Netherlands) packing in the first round. Nico Ruponen and Amanda hogstrom of Sweden, on the other hand, are through for the quarter-finals after winning 21-15, 22-20 against Lane/Pugh (England).
Two out of the three European men’s doubles quarter-finalists are Dutch; Jacco Arends and Ruben Jille will face Choi/Hoon (Korea), and, Jelle Maas and Robin Tabeling have the top seeds from Chinese Taipei to worry about in their quarter-final. Joining them are the English Peter Briggs and Tom Wolfenden, who will try to get past the second seeds Inoue/Kaneko from Japan.
Last but not least, Anastasia Chervyakova and Olga Morozova from Russia. They are the only women’s doubles waving a European flag in the quarter-finals, after the top seeded Stoeva sisters from Bulgaria suffered a defeat in the second round. Chervyakova/Morozova won White Nights on home turf last week and will try to keep the streak going against Chae/Korkim from Korea.
Friday, July 14
11 PM CEST (3 PM local time) - Quarter-finals for ALL events
Saturday, July 15
9 PM CEST (1:00 PM local time) - Semi-finals for ALL events
Sunday, July 16
9 PM CEST (1:00 PM local time) - Finals for ALL events
Find the schedule by clicking here.