Sydney Olympic Park to host world’s best badminton players

The world’s best badminton players will be competing at the 2014 Australian Badminton Open at Sydney Olympic Park from 24th to 29th June.

With Australia’s premier badminton tournament, featuring as part of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) MetLife BWF World Superseries for the first time this year, the event is open to all badminton players from Member Associations affiliated to the BWF.

Welcoming Sydney’s hosting of the tournament, NSW Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris said he was looking forward to Sydney hosting the Australian Badminton Open, stating “the upgrade of this event to a World Superseries tournament, from 2014 to 2017, is a tremendous recognition of our ability to deliver a world class event..

“The upgrading is expected to attract an increased number of visitors to Sydney and NSW to attend the tournament and the Superseries broadcast will be seen by millions of television viewers in key Asian markets, showcasing NSW as Australia’s premier sporting and major events destination and a great place to visit.”

In addition to taking a coveted spot on the World Superseries, the 2014 Australian Badminton Open also has a new website that features destination news, tournament prospectus, players’ profiles and ticketing information via TicketDirect Australia.

Badminton Australia Board member and Tournament Director Loke Poh Wong added “we’re really excited about the new website launching, it’s all part of the event upgrade for 2014 and will help reflect our new status as a Superseries.  It will make it easier not only for all our world class athletes to navigate, but for the general public as well to review draws, match schedules, live scoring, check out player profiles and purchase tickets.”

Tickets for the 2014 Australian Badminton Open will be available for purchase online from 11th April with Junior admission starting at just $10 ranging to Premium ticketing at $75 on the finals weekend.

Inaugurated in 2007, the BWF World Superseries is a 12-tournament series where top badminton players compete throughout the year for a place in the season finale, BWF World Superseries Finals.

The US$750,000 in prize money that will be up for grabs at the Australian BWF World Superseries event will also see badminton offering one of the most lucrative sporting prize pools in the country.

The Australian Badminton Open event will also represent one of the last opportunities for athletes to earn the all-important world ranking points needed to compete at the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014.

In another first for Australia, many of the players competing in the Australian Badminton Open this year will donate their old racquets, equipment and clothing to less developed counties in Australia’s Oceania region such as Tonga, Nauru and Fiji. The organisers will also be encouraging fans and spectators to do the same and bring their old badminton equipment and have them to good use by the less fortunate countries of this sport.

Click here to visit the 2014 Australian Badminton Open website or visit the Australian Badminton Open Facebook community at https://www.facebook.com/AusBadOpen?fref=ts

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