Dubai Superseries biggest gathering of best shuttlers

The big crowd at the main entrance of the Hamdan Sports Complex in Dubai waiting for their turn to get an autograph from Saina Nehwal on Friday afternoon. Photo by Shihab/ Khaleej Times

Dubai — The UAE as a badminton centrepoint, if not at least as a stopover, was thought to be unimaginable once.

This is not the case now after the successful staging of the season ending World Superseries Finals at the Hamdan Sports Complex from December 17 to 21 where the pulse of the badminton population here was felt.

The year-ender is the most important badminton tournament outside the BWF World Championships.

The fact that only the top eight players in the five categories gather for the show, makes the Superseries Finals something very special for the players and the followers of the toughest racquet sport in the world.

Added to this was the fact that the inaugural Dubai splash into the world of badminton was the richest ever in the sport, with an offer of $1 million as total prizemoney.

The first two days saw nearly 400 fans occupy one side of the stadium but the numbers swelled to well over 3,500 as the two top draws here — Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth — kept gaining form during the qualifying group matches till Friday.

Further, Chen Long the new king of badminton and the heir apparent to the emperor’s throne after the magnificent Lin Dan, also kept pumping up steam from his corner, much to the delight of his support base in the UAE.

The setting was a juicy and sumptuous spread of sheer class and style for the weekend crowd where the some of the lesser known players with their own approach and touch gave the event the right sort of a balance during the semifinal stages.

Saina led from the front till she succumbed to the brilliance of Tai Tzu Ying, the 20-year old prodigy from Chinese Taipeh.

Tai won the Hong Kong Open nearly three weeks ago and she is the champion of the future as the sport in recent years has seen the emergence of unbelievable talent among the teenage contenders.

Just to name a few are Tai, Akane Yamaguchi, Ratchanok Intanon and Srikanth. There are many more players of the same grade waiting on the fringes and they were not on show here as only the serious and consistent point gatherers of the Superseries circuit are eligible for the year-end extravaganza.

The best part of the crowd support was that they stayed back even after their favourites lost, to cheer the rest of the field. Most of the ticket buyers were from the leading badminton clubs in the UAE, most of them hands-on players, including ex-state and national level players.

One person who will have fond memories of the Dubai event will be Hans-Kristian Vittinghus when he achieved one of his career’s most memorable results by entering the title round.

He had never beaten Jan O Jorgensen and had a 0-5 head-to-head prior to his 21-11, 21-17 men’s singles semifinal win, late Saturday night.

Vittinghus was philosophical after losing to Chen in the group phase where he stretched the world champion.

“I take it one day at a time, and will wait for my last group fixture to see if I have some kind of a chance for the rest of the tournament. Let’s wait and see, anyone who plays even marginally better wins at this level, it’s as simple and clear as that,” Vittinghus said.

“I was out of breath after the third point,” said the second seeded Jorgensen after the semis, following his top finish in Group B.

Vittinghus, modest like most top badminton stars, said: “It was clear today (Saturday night) that Jan was missing his speed compared to his best. I had a lot of success controlling the game, keeping him at the back and giving him long runs. I felt he was tired. Also, I had some luck today with net cords and mishits going my way. It feels a bit surreal. I’m also a bit emotional as well.”

“Against Chen in the final I am planning on trying to control the game from the start. I need to go out and play full power from the start,” he added.

moni@khaleejtimes.com