This week is important for all the countries and teams in Europe as European Men’s and Women’s Team Championships is going on in Kazan, Russia. However, there are two players for whom this week is particularly memorable. One is finishing his career, the other one makes a major comeback after an injury.
Scott Evans (Ireland) who is playing his last international tournament will finish his career as world no. 129, having his career-best position of no. 23 in 2015.
- What can I say… After 15 years as a professional badminton player, with 3 Olympic games and a ton of amazing memories, I am officially retiring from international badminton after Thomas Cup in Russia, Evans posted on his Instagram.
Jan O Jorgensen is back on court in Kazan after almost 8 months. Being the former world no. 2 on men’s singles world ranking list, he is back on court now as world no. 155.
- It has been a tough ride and I’m proud again to represent my country, Jorgensen wrote on his Instagram.
COE player improves his ranking
One of the youngest players in the BEC Centre of Excellence - Matthew Abela (Malta) was a semi-finalist in last week’s Algeria International 2018 and has jumped forward on men’s singles world ranking list. Starting to perform in elite tournaments recently, he moved from position no. 1472 to 638 this week.
Talking about how the trainings in the COE have helped him improve in many aspects, Matthew believes that step by step he will get better on court and climb higher on ranking.
-I feel happy that my ranking got so much higher. This tournament gave me an opportunity to play some good matches because in other tournaments I played only one or two matches. I would like to get better results in next tournaments and get to 500 in ranking for now.
See the full BWF ranking here