Rich Bingo Bonanza Badminton Open on

MANILA, Philippines - Local fans get the rare chance to witness world-class badminton starting today as close to 200 players, including those in the world’s top 10, begin their hunt for fame and fortune in the $120,000 Bingo Bonanza Philippine Open Badminton Championships at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

Action starts at 10 a.m. with the elimination round in various divisions where the fancied bets, including world No. 2 Zhou Mi of Hong Kong, Andrew Smith of England, Vietnam’s top player Nguyen Tien Minh, former world junior champion Chen Long of China, Yip Pui Yin, also of Hong Kong, the women’s Indonesian pair of Meiliana Jauhari and Shendy Iwarati and its men’s tandems of Bona Septano-Mohammad Ahsan and Rian Sukmawan-Yonathan Dasuki, are expected to showcase their talent and skills before a huge local and international crowd.

While the foreign bets are tipped to slug it out for top honors in the men’s and ladies singles, men’s and ladies doubles and mixed doubles, the local talents will try to pull off some surprises as they chase world ranking points in the five-day tournament, a Graded four-star or Gold event, organized by the International Management Group.

The veteran brother-sister tandem of Kennevic and Kennie Asuncion will again lead 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. But a slew of young local talents are raring to get into the fray and gain experience from the top-level tournament, including Malvinne Alcala, Gelita Castillo, Kelvin Ang and Peter and Patrick Magnaye.

As host, the Philippines has the most number of entries with 74 while world badminton powers Indonesia, China and Hong Kong have 30, 23 and 22 entries, respectively. Malaysia has a 16-player contingent while Singapore and Japan have 14 and nine players, respectively.

For updates on Bingo Bonanza RP Open, log on to wwww.philopenbadminton.com.

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.