Canada-Germany combine chases RP Open diadem

MANILA, Philippines - Charmaine Reid of Canada and Germany’s Nicole Grether team up to form a formidable combination in the women’s doubles event of the third Bingo Bonanza Philippine Open Badminton Championships which unwraps Wednesday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

Both top-ranked singles players, the buddies get together again to lead the hunt for top honors in one of the five categories to be disputed in the $120,000 tournament, a Graded four-star or Gold event featuring some of the world’s finest and upcoming shuttlers.

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

Winners of the Bahrain International Challenge last December, the second ranked Reid and Grether reached the semis of the Austrian International last January but were booted out in the Last 32 stage of the recent Swiss Open. They, however, vowed to come out strong in the RP Open and contend for the crown.

Reid and Grether are also seeing action in the singles side of the event, sponsored by Bingo Bonanza and organized by the International Management Group, with Reid seeded No. 8 and Grether ranked No. 10 in the featured class headed by world No. 2 and defending champion Zhou Mi.

But the Canadian-German pair will take the backseat for the Indonesian pair of Meiliana Jauhari and Shendy Iwarati, the world No. 8 and the top-seeded tandem in the 23-pair field which made it to the semis in the Malaysian Super Series last January.

Meanwhile, tickets are available at Ticketworld with prices pegged at P300, P200, P150, P100 and P50 for the first three days and P500, P400, P300, P200 and P50 in the final two days. For details, contact Ticketworld at 891-9999 or log on to ticketworld.com.ph.