MANILA, Philippines - World No. 5 Simon Santoso and reigning All England Badminton Open mixed doubles champions Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir will strut their wares before local fans as they grace the P1 million FDG Cup Open and Invitational Badminton Championships on Oct. 5-6 at Powersmash in Pasong Tamo, Makati City.
The top Indonesian players have confirmed participation in the event where they are set to play exhibition matches that would serve as the highlight of the two-day tournament held in honor of Robinsons Land Corp. president Frederick D. Go.
Santoso, the reigning Indonesian Open champion, is the lone Indon player in the Top 10 of the current world men’s singles ranking. He is currently fighting for a berth in the finals of the Japan Open.
Ahmad and Natsir, on the other hand, swept Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhi of Denmark to capture the All England Super Series premier crown. The world No. 4 duo also topped the Swiss Open and the India Open.
Organizers of the annual event, staged by the business partners of RLC in cooperation with the Partners Cup as part of FDG’s continuing commitment to help develop and promote the sport, have invited elite players to play exhibition matches and give local players and enthusiasts a glimpse of world-class badminton.
No less than former world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei and doubles specialist Koo Kean Kiat of Malaysia graced last year’s staging of the event, which features the country’s leading players, where they played alongside FDG and Kennevic Asuncion in exhibition games in the final day of competitions.
Meanwhile, this year’s top purse in the men’s doubles has been raised to P200,000, P40,000 more than last year, while the mixed doubles winner will get P120,000 and the ladies doubles champions will receive P90,000, making it the richest ever in any Open doubles competitions.
For details, call/text 0932-8573431 c/o Glenn Encarnacion or Richard Bautista or log on to www.fdgcup.com.
This year’s field will be limited to 64 pairs in the men’s doubles while 32 teams will slug it out in both the mixed and ladies doubles of the tournament to be graced by Iza Calzado as host with Giselle Sanchez and Brod Pete as entertainers.