This year, the Orléans Masters tournament will celebrate being part of the BWF Tour Super 100 for the first time – with a prize pool of $75,000.
Some of the world’s finest talent of up and coming players will meet in Orléans, just over 100km south of Paris, to compete for those all-important ranking points so they can work their way up through the BWF Tours.
In 2017, Europe enjoyed much success at this very tournament, with three Europeans titles: Mark Caljouw (The Netherlands) winning the Men’s Singles, Kirsty Gilmour (Scotland) winning the Women’s Singles and Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich (Germany) winning the Mixed Doubles title.
We spoke to Josche Zurwonne and Jones Ralfy Jansen, from Germany, to see how they’ve been preparing for this year’s event and how they will are dealing with being second seeds in the Men’s Doubles draw:
- It is always a great feeling to play tournaments in France. The spectators are amazing and the tournament is really well organized. I was able to win the tournament in Orléans a few years ago and it was a pleasure to perform in front of these amazing spectators. Knowing that feeling will be my motivation for next week – said Josche.
- I’m happy and can’t wait to play Orléans Master this year. Good atmosphere and good organisation is what I’m thinking about this tournament. My preparation is also doing well. I wouldn’t think too much about our position in this tournament (as a second seeded). With full of concentration and good preparation for this tournament I believe that we can have a better result than last year and I’m really looking forward for that! – said Jones.
The Orléans Masters starts next week, taking place from 27 March – 1 April. Keep up to date with the latest scores here.
It’s not too late to buy tickets to watch either! Buy your tickets here.