wood_22_chuck said:
Interesting to see that badminton is alive and popular enough in places like Russia, Bulgaria, Sweden and Germany for them to send players to international competition.
Any bio on the up and coming players from these countries? International exposures and such?
-dave
These countries have been playing competitively on the international scene for years and all have (or have had) at least world top 20 players! (+ european champions and even world champions in the case of Sweden...)
Petya Nedelcheva was quarter-finalist in WS at the Athens Olympics this summer...
Are you sure you really meant what you said???
...
Just to give you a few informations about some of the players who were present at the Toulouse Open :
Anastasia Russkikh (Russia) : she is 21 and is a world class doubles player, though she doesn't have regular partners (neither in WD nor in MX).
She reached 1/4F at Dutch Open, German Open and Denmark Open with her coach Jesper Larsen.
Petya Nedelcheva (Bulgaria) : as said above, 1/4F at the Athens Olympics, #19 in the world in WS and #17 with Neli Boteva in WD.
Sara Persson (Sweden) : sister of top class MX player Johanna Persson (world #9), she is currently #40 in WS. (second Swede behing Marina Andrievskaya)
Germany : they are one of the very best European nations, their top player in Toulouse Open included Björn Joppien (world #11 in MS), Marc Zwiebler (2003 junior european champion in MS), Petra Overzier (world #22 in WS) etc...
Unfortunately, Nicole Grether and Juliane Schenk (world #5 in WD and respectively #30 and #16 in WS) pulled out of the competition before it started...
)