Banuinvest International Badminton Championships 2012

Timisoara, the beautiful historical city in the west side of Romania welcomed the players at the 2009 Banuinvest International with snowflakes and at the end of the tournament saluted them with sun.
It was a surprise for the Romanian fans to watch and applaud their players on the podium at each of the doubles events when gathering 4 medals.

In women’s doubles the Romanian pair Florentina Petre-Alexandra Milon succeed into the final, same as 2 years ago, but they could not pass first seeded, more experienced Bulgarian doubles Petya Nedelcheva-Dimitria Popstoikova. A nice result was also the one of the other Romanian women’s doubles players Alexandra Agu-Diana Apostu winning the 3rd place together with the Austrians Elisabeth Baldauf-Belinda Heber.

The men’s doubles final was played between the first seeded Czech brothers Ondrej Kopriva-Tomas Kopriva and the Bulgarian pair

The women’s singles and the men’s singles finals were a Bulgarian respectively an Indonesian final.
No surprise in the women’s singles final where Petya Nedelcheva beat her compatriot Linda Zechiri in 2 sets. The 3rd place was shared by Ukrainian Elena Prus and Croatian Andrea Zvorc.
The 2 Indonesians, Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka and Bandar Sigit Pamungkas had a nice 3 set match. At the end, the 6th seeded Rumbaka managed to win the final. The 3rd places went to the Dane Christian Lind-Thomsen and the Japanese player Riichi Takeshita.

The most attractive final of the tournament was the mixed doubles one where 1st seeded pair Valeriy Atrashchenkov-Elena Prus from Ukraine beat the 3rd seeded Richard Vaughan-Sarah Thomas from Wales. Even though there were only 2 sets the high quality of the game was impressive. One of the 3rd places was surprisingly obtained by the Romanians Florin Patroaica-Alexandra Milon getting into the final winning a hard match against 4th seeded Iztok Utrosa-Maja Tvrdy from Croatia. Stilian Makarski-Diana Dimova couldn’t pass the Welsh pair Vaughan-Thomas and reached the 3rd place.

For Badminton Europe
Corina Dan

The finals day began with men’s singles where Raul Must from Estonia lost the final against his own racket. During the 2nd set the string from Ville Lang’s racket was broken so Raul borrowed him one. Both, winner Ville Lang from Finland and runner-up Raul Must where unseeded players.

Men’s and mixed doubles winners are the 2 Bulgarian pairs Vladimir Metodiev - Krasimir Yankov and Diana Dimova - Stilian Makarski.

Hye Youn Hwang from Korea was the most successful women’s singles player winning each game 2-0.

The Finish player Ville Lang won yesterday against 3rd seeded Jan Frohlich and made it today to the finals winning against Ivan Sozonov from Russia, Jan Vondra from Czech Republic and Brice Leverdez from France.

Koreas number 1 seeded Hye Youn Hwang reached the women’s final without problems.

The Polish boy Lukasz Moren managed to be present tomorrow in 2 finals – men’s doubles and mixed doubles as well as Russian girl Olga Golovanova, which is playing in the women’s singles and doubles.

Today started the games on the main draw at the 3rd edition of Banuinvest International Championships held in Timisoara, Romania.

After a struggling fight on court the Finish player Ville Lang won in 3 sets against Jan Frohlich from Czech Republic. The good “old” Jurgen Koch from Austria plays tomorrow in the quarter finals.

In women’s singles the 2nd seeded Charmaine Reid from Canada lost against the Bulgarian player Linda Zechiri in 2 sets.

For the matches of tomorrow the favorites are in men’s singles the 2 Czech boys, Jan Vondra and Petr Koukal and in women’s singles the 2 players from Korea, Hye Youn Hwang and Soo Young Jang.

Time schedule for Thursday, 20 of March:

• 1:00 p.m - Umpires Briefing for all umpires
• 1:30 p.m. - Short Team Manager Briefing before Qualyfications
• 2:00 p.m. - Start the Qualyfication rounds in MS, WS
• 9:00 p.m - Short Team Managers Briefing for Main Draw

Banuinvest International Championships 2008 will start with the qualification on Thursday, 20 of March 2008 and will conclude with the finals on Sunday, 23rd of March 2008.

Dear Friends,
It is our pleasure to keep you informed with the latest news from our Badminton Tournament “Banuinvest International Badminton Championships 2008”.

We are expecting you between March 20-23rd 2008 at the Banu Sport halls in Timisoara, for a great sport show.