The YONEX German Open 2018 concluded with an entertaining line-up on the final’s day on Sunday. Thomas Born, president of the German association, Deutsche Badminton Verband (DBV), looks back at this week with great pride.
After the new event system which was launched from the World Badminton Federation (BWF), Germany still has a tournament on the HSBC BWF World Tour. German Open, which was formally known as a Grand Prix Gold is now a Super -tournament with prize money for up to 150.000 USD.
- I think it was again a very great week and we have now seen six days of fantastic badminton. The spectators were very pleased, I think, Born expressed to Badminton Europe on Sunday after the finals.
The German Open is the biggest tournament for the German association and it means a great deal to them. The president also emphasized that this tournament could not be possible without their successful partnership with Yonex.
A bright future
The president is also very proud of the brave fights that the German players put up for the home crowd this week. Especially, the women’s doubles Carla Nelte and Isabel Herttrich played an entertaining match that lasted for one hour and 14 minutes.
- Some of our players are also a little bit injured so they could not give their best performance but in general it was OK and we saw some very, very good matches. There was the mixed and the ladies’ doubles was very close in the third set.
- After the Olympic Games in Rio, we changed our teams and some older players retired. I think we are going to have a bright future with our young players. The results in the last months have been very good for their age and we hope to develop up to the Olympic Games in 2020 and 2024.