Top seeds advance in Crowne Plaza Open

The top seeds as well the NMI’s young badminton players notched wins at the start of the Badminton World Federation Grade 3 International Challenge tournament—the Crowne Plaza Northern Marianas Open 2024 yesterday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

Women’s No. 1 seed Hsiang Ti Lin smashed past Insyirah Khan, 21-18, 21-15; No. 3 seed Kaoru Sugiyama fought tooth and nail against Shaunna Li in three tough sets, 21-18, 21-12, 21-8.

New Zealand’s Edward Lau, who topped the men’s singles event in the Oceania Championships 2024 in Victoria, Australia last February, won his match over Canadian Hing Long Wong, 21-9, 21-9.

For 2019 World Junior Championship winner and seventh seed Riko Gunji of Japan, she bested Chinese Taipei’s Yi-Ting Hung, 21-19, 21-8; and No. 6 seed Akari Kurihara beat Thamonwan Nithiittikrai, 21-15, 21-17.

At press time, not all matches are finished.

Results of the other finished matches were U.S.A.’s Airi Oku won over Guam’s Wanxin Yue, 21-6, 21-7; India’s Aryamann Tandon defeated Guam’s Rui Wang, 21-6, 21-4; and Chinese Taipei’s Hsin-Pei Tsai beat out South Korea’s Seo Yeon Yoo in three tough sets, 17-21, 21-19, 21-11.

South Korea’s Pyeong Gang Choi beat NMI’s Andreau Galvez, 21-6, 21-7; Chinese Taipei’s Hsin Tse Tu blew by NMI’s Marlon Bautista, 21-7, 21-6; and Japan’s Mihane Endo edged Guam’s Kristine Deng, 21-5, 21-5.

Zong Han Lee beat Louis Millianer Choo, 21-8, 21-8; Chinese Taipei’s Wu Chang Min trounced Yangson Zhao, 21-8, 21-6; and Kwang Hee Heo fought until the end against Shaunna Li, 18-21, 21-12, 21-8.

Heo then took on Eogene Ewe and won, 21-14, 14-21, 21-17; Peng Yu Wei won via walkover vs. Isabelle Rusli; Ping-Hsien Huang defeated Varot Uraiwong, 21-12, 21-16; and Yu Cheng Chen got the best of Tao Ong Lee, 21-19, 21-9.

Then, Rylan Tan put off Erfan Hajibeigy in three sets, 13-21, 21-17, 21-19; Chen Jia Chu crushed NMI’s Ean Camacho, 21-3, 21-7; and Sorano Yoshikaawa beat So Yul Lee, 21-11, 22-20.

Meanwhile, Paulo Quidato won the first game for NMI as he beat Guam’s Corey Lei, 21-14, 21-19, while later, teammate Kyle Salcedo defeated Guam’s Yu Xuan Xia, 21-12, 21-18.

Quidato also played in the two Olympic qualifiers last year. the Crowne Plaza Northern Marianas Open 2023 and the TakeCare Saipan International 2023.

He said of this tournament, “I was nervous in the beginning of the match because I didn’t know who my opponent was.” He said he didn’t underestimate his opponent and throughout the match, he focused on keeping his own pace. “It was a pretty good game overall and I’m looking forward to my next match,” he said.

For Salcedo, he shook nerves off as he competed in his first international tournament. He said of his match, “It was nerve-wracking for sure. I felt like I didn’t play how I usually played because the nerves were there.”

He will next face off against players from China, South Korea, or Malaysia, and said he hopes that he gets a few good rallies and some points in. “Their playing level is so high so my aim is just to have good rallies and receive the smashes—try to survive until the matches,” he said. On winning his first international match, he said, “I’m happy, but I feel like I could’ve done better.”

Today is Day 2 of the tournament, with more NMI players sharing the courts with athletes from 15 other countries.