Badminton: Strong field chases glory at NZ Open

The US$50,000 ($76,000) New Zealand Open world grand prix event looks to be the toughest badminton tournament held in New Zealand with 18 nations and a number of highly ranked players involved.

But local interest will be strong at the North Shore Events Centre starting today, especially after the performance of the women's doubles and mixed pairs in Australia over the weekend.

The Auckland mixed team of Donna Haliday and Henry Tam fell short in the final of the US$50,000 Australian Open in Melbourne. Although it was the best result by a Kiwi mixed pair for several years, they were outplayed by the Hong Kong world No 11 combination of Yohan Hadikusumo Wiratama and Hoi Wah Chau.

Haliday, 28 and Tam 21, defeated the Australian team of Ben Walklate and Kate Wilson-Smith in a marathon semifinal and are drawn to play them in the first round this week. If it all works out they could face the Hong Kong team of Wiratama and Chau again in the final.

Haliday also made the women's doubles semis with Waitakere's Danielle Barry and will be seeded this week while New Zealand men's singles No 1 Joe Wu (Waikato) and Barry will also be hopeful after making the mixed semis in Melbourne.

Matches start at 1pm today with the mixed and women's qualifying followed by the men's first round singles.

NZ four-time Commonwealth Games medallist and world champs bronze medallist Dan Shirley is in the men's doubles with John Gordon. He also teams with Rachel Hindley in the mixed doubles.