All ENGLAND OPEN 2019

By Jugal Hora

All England Open 2019

The All England Open Badminton championship which started on 6th March 2019 just concluded on Sunday, the 10th of March this year. Founded in 1899 this is one of the oldest badminton championships held annually in England.

The championship offers for different categories of matches, namely:

0. Men’s Single

0. Women’s Single

0. Doubles                                                                      

Number of Indian players participated in all the categories of the Championship. 

In Men’s Single: 

• Srikanth Kidambi

• B Sai Praneeth

• HS Prannoy

• Sameer Verma

In Women’s Single: 

• PV Sindhu

• Saina Nehwal 

Doubles:   

• Manu Attri - BS Reddy

• Meghna Jakkampudi - PS Ram

• Ashwini Ponappa - N Sikki Reddy   

• Pranaav Jerry Chopra - N Sikki Reddy

Although the last time an Indian won this event was in 2001 when Pullela Gopichand managed to come out victorious and made the nation proud. Despite having the presence of outstanding players like PV Sindhu and K Srikanath who often produce medal wining performance in various international events, The All England Championship is an event where none these great Indian players of the present era have come out victorious. The Indian players didn’t meet the expectations of the people of the country as India went into the tournament with its star player like PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and K Srikanth. People expected the wait to end after these 18 years. 

Viktor Axelsen celebrating

Keeping aside the performance of the Indian team in the tournament there were many players who showed their brilliant skills in the championship. Viktor Axelsen a Danish badminton player broke the world record of the Smash speed by hitting a mark of 419km/h, the previous record holder for the fastest smash speed was held by Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia with a smash speed of 417km/h. 

Although the Dane struggled a lot due to the implementation of the new service rule in which a player has to serve under the height of 1.15 meter off ground. He also openly protested against the service rule including many other tall players such as Chen Long 

The winner board for the Championship is as follows.

Kento Momata taking a smash hit in the All England Open 2019

The Men’s Single was aced by Kento Momota of Japan and She Yuqi of China became the runner up, the  men’s doubles won by Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/ Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo  of Indonesia and LiJunhui/Liu Yuchen of China became the runner up.

The total prize money for this year's tournament was US$1,000,000. Distribution of prize money was in accordance with BWF regulations. According to the BWF regulations the prize money was distributed as follows the Singles winner was awarded $70,000, the Finalists got $34,000 each, Semi Finalists were awarded $14,000, Quarter finalists got $5,000 each, the last 16 got $3,000 each and the last 32 got $1,000 each. Similarly for the doubles the Winner was awarded $74,000, the finalists were awarded $35,000 each, the Semi Finalists got $14,000 each, the Quarter Finalists got $6,250 each, the last 16 got $3250 and last 32 were awarded $1,000.