For the 8th time in a row Vienna hosts the European Circuit tournament Austrian International Challenge. And also as in previous years, the presence of Asian players is immense. Its has become tradition over the recent years that a lot of non European players enter this 15.000 Dollars tournament to get used to European “air” and play the Yonex German Open the week after.

Only in the women's singles, with Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva in the lead, there is a top seed from Europe. All other disciplines will see Asians claiming the top seeding spots, with Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei (world ranking 27) in the men’s singles and Malaysian players in the men’s doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles category with a top seeding spot.

Best seeded European in the men’s singles event is Spaniard Pablo Abian but also last year’s finalist Yuhan Tan of Belgium catched one of the seedings spots. As in previous years, also this year's edition will offer a hard fight between Europe and Asia.

Big hopes for the hosting nation Austria are veteran players Jürgen Koch/Peter Zauner in the men’s doubles category and mixed doubles Roman Zirnwald/Elisabeth Baldauf. It will be tough for the Austrian men’s singles shuttler leaded by Austrian Olympic participant Michael Lahnsteiner and current Austrian champion David Obernosterer as they would face seeded players if they survive their first round matches. Simone Prutsch will have a tough first match against Spanish Beatriz Corrales.

The finals of qualification will be played on Thursday morning. The main tournament will start on Wednesday, noon. The tournament ends traditionally on Saturday as the finals held in the evening are attracting a higher number of spectators to watch international top badminton.

Click HERE for all results from Vienna
Click HERE to see all previous champions of the tournaments

Article by Tina Riedl, Photo by BadmintonPhoto