World's No. 1 thrilled to play in FDG Cup

MANILA, Philippines - World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei yesterday expressed his elation over the rare chance to strut his wares before Filipino fans as he graces the FDG Cup 2011, National Open and Invitational badminton tournament firing off tomorrow at PowerSmash in Makati.

“It has been years since my last visit to Manila, Koo (Kien Keat) and I are very excited and feel honored to be invited and be part of the prestigious FDG Cup,” Lee said.

Lee and Koo, currently the world No. 4 in men’s doubles with Boon Heong Tan, will play in exhibition matches in the final day of the two-day event on Saturday with officials of the sponsoring Robinsons Land Corp., headed by its president Frederick Go, and veteran internationalist and the country’s former No. 1 Kennevic Asuncion.

“We are really looking forward to our exhibition matches and hope that we can inspire a lot of Filipino badminton enthusiasts,” said Lee, from Malaysia, the only badminton player to have won six major Super Series titles in six months.

Also seeing action are the country’s leading players, headed by Malvinne Alcala, who will be teaming up with Danica San Ignacio in the ladies doubles event which offers P80,000 to the champion.

Gelita Castilo and Dia Nicole Magno head the cast as the top seeded team along with Reyne Calimlim and Pauline Ramos tandem and Jubie Vallarta-Abel Villaran pair from Robinsons Land Corp.

The battle for the men’s doubles crown is also tipped to go down-to-the-wire with the Ronel Estanislao-Paul Vivas pair renewing its rivalry with the Aries delos Santos-Gabriel Villanueva tandem in the tournament which stakes over P500,000 in cash prizes.

The two pairs split honors in the first two legs of the PBaRS (Philippine Badminton Ranking System) tournament with the Delos Santos-Villanueva pair winning in their initial face-off at PowerSmash. The Estanislao-Vivas tandem got back at its tormentor with a straight-set victory in the second leg in Bacolod.

John Kenneth Monterubio and Gerard Sibayan of Allied-Victor and the Andrei Babad-Peter Magnaye pair are also in the hunt for the richest purse (P160,000) staked in Open doubles category in the event which also features the cream of the country’s badminton crop in ladies doubles.

The elims all the way to the quarterfinals for the Open will be played July 1 while the semis and the finals and the Invitational will be held Saturday.

The Invitational, which includes Classes A, B, C, D, E and F with a maximum of 32 players in each category, will also feature employees and business partners of Robinsons Land Corp., which consists of the company’s suppliers, contractors, architects, designers and construction managers.