Tight battle seen in men's doubles

MANILA, Philippines - With a big field of over 50 teams, the battle for the men’s doubles crown in the third Bingo Bonanza Philippine Open Badminton Championships is expected to be a wide-open race when the $120,000 event is held beginning Wednesday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

The Indonesian tandems of Bona Septano-Mohammad Ahsan and Rian Sukmawan-Yonathan Dasuki are the early favorites in the chase for top honors based on their world rankings of Nos. 8 and 10, respectively. But the rest are ready to challenge them, including world No. 16 Wan Wah Lee and Tan Fook Chong, who will carry the cudgels for Malaysia following the last-minute withdrawal of its top two tandems.

Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong, the world’s No. 3 and champions in the last staging of the event sponsored by Bingo Bonanza in 2007, and Tazari Mohd and Latif Abdul, the world No. 5, begged off at the last-minute, citing previous commitments.

But the field remains as talent-laden with the Chinese tandem of Zhiben Chen and Ye Shen and another Indonesian pair of Alvent Chandra and Hendra Gunawan joining the chase for the crown in the five-day tournament, a Graded four-star or Gold event, organized by the International Management Group.

The hosts will also try to pull off some surprises with the Andrei Babad-Peter Magnaye and Paul Vivas-Ronel Estanislao tandems leading the Filipinos’ campaign in the blue-ribbon event, sanctioned by the Philippine Badminton Association and backed by Victor (PCOME Industrial Sales, Inc), PLDT Business Solutions, The Philippine STAR, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Solar Sports.

For updates on Bingo Bonanza RP Open, which also features the men’s singles, men’s and ladies doubles and mixed doubles, log on to wwww.philopenbadminton.com.