The second tournament on the 2013 Badminton Europe circuit will be hosted by Badminton Sweden in the city of Stockholm,  starting the 17th January with the finals held on the 20th January.

The Swedish favorite, and silver medalist of last year's European Championships, Henri Hurskainen (WR 37) will fight as the top seed trying to bring home the men's singles crown to the Swedish fans. Henry will face stiff competition from a strong field with many young and up-coming players, but also from top contenders like Brice Leverdez of France, Eric Pang from Holland, and an in-form Vladimir Ivanov of Russia, who last week reached a quarter-finals of the huge Premier Super Series tournament in Korea.

One of the up-coming players to keep an eye on in the tournament is the reigning World Junior Champion Kento Momota of Japan. He is one of the younger players that may well be one of the title contenders in the men's singles.  Japan have a tradition of sending some of their hottest young talents to the Swedish International in Stockholm, like current Japanese number one and international star smasher Kenichi Tago, who went through qualification and kickstarted his career when he won the title at the Swedish International Stockholm back in 2007.

The women's singles category will be an exciting event with the top seed is only 19 years old. The Spanish super talent Carolina Marin (WR 34) is facing challenges from Czech Kristina Gavholt, Japan's Kaori Imabeppu, who has won the Swedish International two times as well as in-form Sashina Wignes Waran of France, Michelle Chan Ky from New Zeeland - and Karina Jørgensen, representing Sweden's big badminton brother across the pond, Denmark.

In the women's doubles, Sweden put its hope in the strong pairing of Emma Wengberg and Emelie Lennartsson. The top seeds in the women's doubles however are one of Malaysia's top women doubles,  Ng Hui Lin/Ng Hui Ern.

In the men's doubles, the Netherlands are represented with three pair out of four top seeds, with Jorrit De Ruiter and Dave Khodabux as the highest ranked pair. Second seeds is the Polish duo of Lukasz Moren and Wojciech Szkudlarczyk, but Poland also have a very interesting pairing with former topsingles player Przemyslav Wacha teaming up with younger doubles specialist Adam Cwalina to pose a serious challenge in the tournament.

The Netherlands are also dominating the rankings in the mixed doubles as they grapped three out of the four top seeding spots. Sweden put their hopes in form of a wildcard with talented Amanda Högström and Nico Ruponen.

The tournament will kick off with the qualification on the 17th of January,  with the finals played on Sunday the 20th in the venue Eriksdalshallen in the Södermalm district of Stockholm.

For a full draw please click HERE.

To see all previous champions of the tournament click HERE.

Article by Torbjörn Jansson, Photo by BadmintonPhoto.