After an intense week in the European Games, held last week in Poland, some of the best athletes are ready to play again.
From 4 July to 9 July, the YONEX Canada Open will be held in Calgary, the third-largest city in Canada, in the Markin-MacPhail Centre, which is frequently used by Canada’s Olympic athletes, as a training and development venue. At this BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament, the players are fighting for a total prize money of 420.000 US-Dollars as well as important points for the Olympic qualification period.
This year, the Canada Open will celebrate its 58th edition, and players from all over the world will join in the American territory for yet another great edition. Over the six days of competition, athletes like Kodai Naraoka, Hans-Kristian Vittinghus, Arnaud Merkle, and Nhat Nguyen will play in the main draw, and on home soil, Brian Yang will face last week’s bronze medalist at the European Games, Misha Zilberman.
Viktor Axelsen, number one seeded for the Canada Open, will no longer be competing in the tournament, as he is in need of a quick break from the intense past weeks: “I’ve pushed my body over the last 4 weeks in order to get ready and perform at Indonesia Open and European Games and my body tells me that recovery followed by high-quality training is what is needed over the next few weeks. Sorry to the Canadian badminton fans - I’d wish I could just keep going and have been looking forward to competing in Calgary! But I’ll see you all next time and will be looking forward to going back to Canada soon”, shared Axelsen on his Twitter account.
Michelle Li, who is also one of the seeded entries at the Canada Open, will play on home soil in women’s singles, together with her compatriots Wen Yu Zhang, Talia Ng, and Rachel Chan. Jenjira Stadelamnn (Switzerland), who won bronze last week at the 2023 European Games, will participate in the Super 500, as well as Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen, who conquered the gold in Poland.
You can expect a week full of excitement and today’s matches start at 05.00 PM (CEST). Check more info about the tournament
here.