Senior badminton tournament begins today

Top Indian shuttlers including Sourabh Varma and Ashwini Ponnappa, will vie for top honours in the five-day Canara Bank All India Senior Ranking Badminton Tournament 2014, commencing here from Tuesday. Former All England champion Prakash Padukone told reporters that as many as 600 players from 22 states will be participating in the event. The tournament will be conducted by Padukone Sports Management under the aegis of Karnataka Badminton Association (KBA) and Badminton Association of India (KBI). ‘BAI will consider the performance of the players in this event for selecting them for various international tournaments in the coming months,’ Prakash said. ‘BAI, for the first time, will contribute prize money of Rs 5 lakh for the tournament,’ he added. The qualifying rounds will be held till February 5 and over 500 matches are scheduled in five categories to qualify for the eight slots in the singles and four slots in the doubles events. ‘The main draw matches will commence from February 6 with finals scheduled on Feb 8,’ informed Prakash.