GUWAHATI: International badminton of “masters” level kicked off with Guwahati Masters Super 100 tournament at Sarusajai Sports Complex on Tuesday.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) event holds serious significance in the sport’s world rankings and is above the Challengers level in BWF Tour.
The Guwahati Masters Super 100 tournament will witness 318 players from 20 countries fighting for top places in various categories.
The last time Guwahati hosted an international badminton tourney was in 2007.
The inaugural edition of the Series offers a prize pool of US$100,000 and is categorised as a BWF Tour Super 100 event.
Earlier in the day, the qualifying and preliminary rounds of the tournament began at 8 am in the indoor stadium of the Complex.
Organised by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) in collaboration with BWF, the five-day tournament will have its finals on December 10.
The tournament being a ranking event, there would be a slew of Indian talents to watch out for in the Series and one of them is World no 79, Unnati Hooda.
The 17-year-old has been eyeing to break into the Top 50 of the BWF rankings and a win in Guwahati Masters will surely bring her close to it.
Hooda competes against Indonesia’s Stephanie Widjaja in the inaugural edition of the competition, featuring notable international players like Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen and Supanida Katethong.
Reflecting on her experience, Hooda told a news agency that she is looking forward to play against former world champion Nozomi Okuhara and aspires to achieve consistency akin to top stars.
