Today marked the opening ceremony of the Yonex Sunrise Challenge the first international Badminton tournament to be held in Sri Lanka. The event was worked off in collaboration with the Badminton World Federation and Badmintion Asia Confederation.
The chief guest for the opening ceremony was the Sports Minister Hon Mr.Mahindananda Aluthgamage. Suraj Dandeniya, President of the Sri Lanka Badminton Association was also at the gathering of guests at the ceremony.
This is first time that Sri Lanka has received an opportunity to host an international badminton tournament and a good contingent of players from all over the world will be in attendance. There are over 260 players taking part in this tournament and out of that 60 players will represent Sri Lanka. The fourteen countries that are taking part are Thailand, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei, Singapore, Australia, Austria, India, Macca, Iran, Newzealand, Danemark, France, Indonesia. Three teams namely Canada, USA and Bangladesh is reported to have withdrawn just before the tournament.
Top players from Sri Lanka are set to participate. Heading the list is Niluka Karunarathne, who is the 9th seed in the tournament together with his brothers Dinuka and Chamika Karunarathne. From the girls Thilini Promodika, Chandrika De Silva and Achini Rathnasiri are expected to take court.
The events that will go into competition in 5 different categories namely Men`s Singles and Doubles, Women`s Singles and Doubles and the Mixed Doubles event. As this is a ranking tournament every player will be keen on getting important points to help their respective ranking. The World ranked number 37 H.S Pranoy is the top ranked player in this tournament and he is also the top seed and favourite in the men`s singles category
The matches will be starting each day at 9am and go on till 10pm at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium and the entrance for this event is free of charge. Today was the qualifying round of matches and the main draw matches will commence tomorrow. The matches will be going on till this Sunday.
These are the results for today`s matches,
