Dave Waddel Badminton Tournament

The Dave Waddel Open is going on in Ottawa this weekend, I checked out the MS which was going on today. A pretty shallow field overall, but Mike Beres and Kyle Hunter were both playing.

In the semis Mike Beres beat Phil Bourque, who lost the first set pretty handily but then gave Mike a real battle in the second set. However in the other semi there was a bit of a surprise as Charles Pyne beat Kyle Hunter in two games. He was well in control in both games except at the end of the second where he gave up several points on attacking mistakes, but watching him play was scary. At least against Hunter he was on his game, very fast, great defense and net play, and with a strong attack when given the opportunity. I did a quick check on the IBF website which shows pretty mediocre tournament results for 2005 (based on a very limited number of matches), including a 15-0 15-3 loss to Andrew Dabeka earlier in the year. All I can say is that he must have improved a hell of a lot since he looked absolutely sick against Hunter, and I think he should be 50-50 to take the finals against Beres on Sunday if he plays anything like he did today.

The LS with a very small field was also going on today but I didn't pay too much attention. I checked the wall chart at the end of the day and Val Loker either won the LS or is in the final.

One question if anybody knows: I noticed that Charles Pyne is from Jamaica according to the IBF, is he in Canada temporarily or has he moved here? I remember seeing him in another Canadian tournament some time ago so he's been here for awhile.