Jakarta — The one-week Indonesia Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament kicked off in Indonesia’s capital city Jakarta on Tuesday with the absence of China’s Olympic and world champion Lin Dan.
The tournament, offering 750,000 U.S. dollars in prizes has attracted more than 200 shuttlers including world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and Chinese ace Li Xuerui from 27 countries and regions.
However, the 31-year-old Lin Dan didn’t make the cut due to his low world ranking. Lin currently ranked 34rd in the world after making a return this April.
China has assigned other World Championships-bound players Chen Long, Du Pengyu, Wang Shixian and Wang Yihan to compete here.
Top seeded Lee Chong Wei will be hoping to win the Indonesia open for the sixth time. However, he will face strong opposition as the rest of the players in the top of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) world rankings have confirmed their entries.
Established in 1982, Indonesia Open is one of five Super Series Premier events run by the BWF with the China Open, All England Open, the Korea Open and the Denmark Open.
China’s women’s doubles Cheng Shu/Bao Yixing and mixed doubles Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei won the gold medals in the super series tournament last year.
