This year's Irish International Badminton Championships, the qualifying stage of which gets under way today at the Baldoyle Centre, has attracted a top-class entry, including some of Europe's leading players.
Top seed in the women's singles is European number two Maja Pohar of Slovakia while Belgian Ruud Kuijten, ranked three in Europe, tops the men's seedings, ahead of defending champion and English number one Darren Hall, the former European champion. The only Irish seed in the tournament is Sonya McGinn who, this week, celebrated her highest ever world ranking when she rose to 37 in the latest list issued by the International Federation. The Irish champion has also moved up to joint 21st in the European rankings and is seeded behind Pohar and Bulgarian Victoria Hristova in the singles at Baldoyle. In the men's doubles, Lisburn brothers Bruce and Mark Topping will hope to maintain the form they produced at last weekend's Welsh Open, where they beat top seeds Kenny Middlemiss and Russell Hogg of Scotland en route to the final, where they lost to a Swedish pair.
Mark Peard and Donie O'Halloran should also produce a strong Irish challenge in the men's doubles while O'Halloran teams up with Elaine Kiely in the mixed competition, fresh from the Welsh Open where they also reached the final.
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