Click for photos from the Crown Power Tools Canterbury International

Saturday - semi-finals review
A good night for the Cheng family in Christchurch with both Victoria and Stephanie winning their way into the finals.  Younger sister Victoria (16) showed that she is a player to keep an eye on as she defeated NZ representative Anna Rankin in three games.  Victoria will play Australian representative Erica Pong in the final.

In the mens singles it will be an all NZ final; Bjorn Seguin (Wko) against James Eunson (Sth).  Both boys had to work hard for their semi-final wins; Seguin defeating Australian Nelson Oon in three entertaining games, winning the third 22-20, and Eunson defeating Daniel Gouw (USA) 22-20 22-20.

The womens doubles final will have everyone confused as we see two sets of sisters opposing each other.  Stephanie Cheng & Emma Chapple will play Victoria Cheng & Clare Chapple after defeated top seeds Amanda Brown and Susannah Leydon-Davis in two games

The mens doubles final will be NZ vs USA.  Oliver Leydon-Davis and Bjorn Seguin will need to lift their game if they are to beat the American's after they were taken to three games in their semi-final by Brock Matheson and James Paterson.

The mixed doubles final is another all NZ match with Joe Wu and Donna Haliday to play Oliver Leydon-Davis and Louise McKenzie

Play starts at 10am

Saturday - quarter-finals review
The upsets continued at the Crown Power Tools Canterbury Badminton International, with only one seeded player making it to the semifinals of the men’s singles at the Canterbury Badminton Centre.

Southland second seed James Eunson put paid to the upset run of Auckland’s Ashraf Dhoray with a 21-12  21-12. Dhoray had earlier defeated Luke Charlesworth and New Zealand team member Kevin Dennerly-Minturn. Eunson has now set up a semifinal clash with American Daniel Gouw who accounted for Michael Fowke(Waikato) in three tight games.

At the top end of the draw it was American-born Bjorn Seguin who showed his worth by defeating top seed, Joe Wu 21-12 19-21 21-19. Seguin was up 12-6 in the third game but Wu was about to fight back to 18-18, however Wu missed a vital smash at match point with his opponent totally out of the point.

Seguin who has been trying to become a New Zealand citizen for the past year wil play Australian Nelson Oon in the semis after Oon beat seeded American Arnold Setiadi 22-20 17-21 22-20.

Meanwhile the women’s draw looks set to pit the top two seeds, Erica Pong(Australia) and Southland’s Anna Rankin against each other in the final.

Pong will still have to get past Auckland’s Clare Chapple in her semi while Rankin faces another Aucklander, Victoria Cheng in her semi.

The mens doubles saw two major upset results with the New Zealand number 2 pairing of Kevin Dennerly-Minturn and James Eunson being beaten by the Auckland pair of Brent Miller and Ashraf Dhoray in three games.  They will now play the top seeded pair from the USA.  In the other half of the draw Brock Matheson and James Paterson upset the second seeds Asher Richardson and William Chen from Canterbury, again in three games.  They now play Oliver Leydon-Davis and Bjorn Seguin in the semi-final

The upsets continued into mixed doubles with the remaining three seeded pairs all being defeated creating the unusual situation where there are no seeded pairs remaining in the sem-finals.

The sem-finals commence Saturday 5pm

Friday - review
With relatively small draws and pairs without world rankings at the Crown Power Tools Canterbury International 2010 it was inevitable that there were going to be some interesting matches in the early rounds.  

In the men's singles Kevin Dennerly-Minturn (Akl) had a good win over Oceania Junior Champion Boris Ma from Australia but went down to team mate Ashraf Dhoray, who had notched up a good win against junior Luke Charlesworth in the first round, in three games to set up a quarter-final match against Soutlander James Eunson.  The much anticipated "big" match between Bjorn Seguin (Wko) and Haikal Jorday, a 16 year old Indonesian player, who had struggled in his first round match against local players Glenn Price, was no match for Seguin.  Seguin will now play top seed Joe Wu in the quarter-finals.  Michael Fowke (Wko) was pushed to three games by local youngster Asher Richardson in the second round; Fowke now plays Daniel Gow from the USA in the quarter-finals. 

In the women's singles local girl Kirsty Rademaker nearly caused a major upset as she pushed Madeleine Stapleton (Wko) to three games, going down 21-18 in the third. 

There were no surprise results in the mens doubles with some interesting match-ups scheduled for the quarter-finals.

In the mixed doubles Ashraf Dhoray continued his good run; with parnter Clare Chapple they defeated 3/4 seeds Luke Charlesworth and Mary O'Connor in three games.  Second seeds Brock Matheson and Amanada Brwon were pushed to three games by Brent Miller and Emma Chapple while the unseeded pair, due to no world ranking, of Joe Wu and Donna Haliday had a comfortable win over Boris Ma (Aus) and Victoria Cheng

The quarter-finals start 10am Saturday with semi-finals starting at 5pm

 

 

Press Release - Thursday 1 April - by Dave Worsley

The Cantebury Badminton International gets underway on Friday with plenty of questions to be answered. Not over who will win the tournament, but where are a number of New Zealand’s best players, especially if they want to have any shot at the slim chance of making the Commonwealth Games.

Players missing include Henry Tam – a key doubles and mixed player, Danielle Barry, who is a top doubles player as well as Jessica Jonggowisastro and Michelle Chan, New Zealand’s two best women’s singles players.

Meanwhile two of the nations biggest associations, North Harbour and Waitakere have limited numbers of players taking part.

However even without some of New Zealand’s best there will still be a number of challengers for the titles.

Joe Wu the Kiwi No1 and a former Canterbury player is the tournament top seed, but may have to battle to get past Bjorn Seguin from the Waikato who is still having a battle to gain a New Zealand passport and be able to represent his adopted country. Seguin dominated the domestic scene last year, but carries a US passport despite trying on several occasions to gain the Kiwi equivalent.

Talented Canterbury teenager Asher Richardson faces Australian, Ferdi Mak in the bottom half of the draw.

Also in the men’s singles are players from Australia such as Boris Ma who may be difficult to get past for any Kiwis as well as a couple of Americans and a player from Trinadad – Rahul Rampersad. Second seed in the tournament is James Eunson from Southland.

In the women’s draw Australian Erica Pong is the top seed with Southland second seed, Anna Rankin looking like her main rival for the title.

The Men’s doubles has Americans Daniel Gouw and Arnold Setaidi as top seeds but with challengers Oliver Leydon Davis, a New Zealand team member and Bjorn Seguin keen to upset with Richardson is teamed up with William Chen.

In the small women’s doubles draw the Waikato pair of Amanda Brown and Susannah Leydon Davis are the top seeds.

The mixed competition is a full draw with Eunson and Auckland’s Stephanie Cheng the top seeds but a number of pairs who could be in title contention. Wu and Donna Haliday who would usually pair up with Henry Tam are unseeded while Richardson will combine with Waikato’s Madeline Stapleton.

The tournament runs from Good Friday until the finals from 10am on Sunday 4 April at the Canterbury Badminton Centre, 220 Pages Road Wainoni.