Shuttlers' Race to Dubai hots up

Dubai - The inaugural 2014 World Superseries Finals at the Hamdan complex saw big crowds despite the game being in its infant stages here. Barring the die-hard expats, badminton among the nationals has been popular only in Bahrain. But after the first Superseries Finals in December 2014, the game picked up in the UAE with a continuous run of events.

 The second of the four Dubai-based MetLife BWF World Superseries Finals takes place at the iconic Hamdan Sports Complex from December 9-13 this year and this series comes after the painstaking efforts taken by the world body and its team under the banner Shuttle Time to make the sport more popular and appealing.
The inaugural 2014 World Superseries Finals at the Hamdan complex saw big crowds despite the game being in its infant stages here. Barring the die-hard expats, badminton among the nationals has been popular only in Bahrain. But after the first Superseries Finals in December 2014, the game picked up in the UAE with a continuous run of events.
"Initiation at the national schools and training PE and other teachers interested have led to active hands-on participation and the numbers are growing by the day," Jaffer Ebrahim, Shuttle Time Dubai director and Bahrain's top national player, told Khaleej Times.
"The club championships we had for the various levels of the game here during the Dubai Sports World at the Dubai World Trade Centre goes to prove this point. The turnout to cheer the teams for four weekends was ample testimony of the growing popularity of the sport not only here but in the region as well."
Now going to the tournament proper, after eight events of the 12 legs of the world superseries, only the Denmark, French, China Open and Hong Kong events remain before the top eight players in the singles and doubles events are finalised. The season-ending Finals sees the top eight finishers in the Superseries calendar making it for the grinding week-long showdown.
In the men's standings the undisputed world number one Chen Long of China heads the list with 53, 650 points and a 24-3 win-loss record. The women's category has Chinese ace Wang Shixian standing tall at the moment on 48, 510 points and a 21-7 win-loss record.
A crowd favourite here, Kidambi Srikanth of India who took part in the 2014 chapter, has slipped from a high number three to ninth following a series of shock defeats in the latest of the buildup events.
Indian star Saina Nehwal has gone down to five from her second ranking though in open world rankings she continues to occupy one of the top two berths.