A world-class field of badminton players is expected in Auckland this April as the Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Badminton Open returns for the eighth year, taking place during the crucial seeding window for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. With just 3 months before the first matches at the Tokyo…

The Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Badminton Open has proved a huge success, played out to capacity crowds at Eventfinda Stadium on Auckland’s North Shore, with a world class field that featured an amazing 11 players or pairs ranked in the top five in the world, 11 former world champions…

If 17-year-old Se Young An (Korea) had any nerves, she wasn’t showing them in her first HSBC BWF Tour Final and clearly the biggest match of her young career as she raced out of the blocks against the 2012 Olympic champion Li Xuerui (China) at the Barfoot & Thompson New…

Jonatan Christie (Indonesia) went one better than last year in taking out the Barfoot & Thompson NZ Open men’s singles title, winning the final 21-12, 21-13 over Angus Ng Ka Long (Hong Kong China). After tasting defeat at the hands of Lin Dan (China) last year, number three seed Christie…

Unseeded Korean pair Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong continued to power their way through the deepest field at the Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Open, winning the final 21-15, 21-18 over the second seeded Japanese combination of Misaki Matsutomo & Ayaka Takahashi. Having never beaten a Japanese combination…

The opening final set the tone at the Barfoot & Thompson New Zealand Open, with Malaysian second seeds Chan Peng Soon & Goh Liu Ying coming out on top over Praveen Jordan and Melati Oktavianti (Indonesia) (5), in a marathon that took a ninth match point to decide, with the…