Yehya, Jaffer, Ammar bag top honors in Dammam Open Badminton Tourney

DAMMAN: Qatar’s Ahmed Yehya scored a thrilling 21-18, 16-21, 21-17 win over his brother Mohammed Yehya to emerge supreme in the Premier men’s singles final of the Dammam Open Badminton Championship, organized by the Evenlode Badminton Club (EBC) at the Al-Ettifaq Club, recently.
In the men’s Premier Doubles final, Jaffer Ebrahim & Ammar Awad scored an easy 21-18, 21-9 victory over Ralph & Salvador.
In the semifinal, the Filipino duo Ralph & Salvador from KSA beat the Qatari brothers Yehya in what turned out to be the match of the tournament, which the brothers won 22-24; 21-16; 22-20.
The other promising junior players seen in action were Ethan Joseph (under-13), Jadeer Hassan (under-15), Salman Arif (under-17). Rayyan Raouf and John Joy who won 1st flight and 2nd flight categories.
This is the first-ever official tournament of Saudi Badminton Committee under the umbrella of Saudi Arabia Olympic Committee.
Badminton Asia Confederation Development Manager, Thana Arikrishnan, and Badminton World Federation (BWF) Middle East Development Manager, Jaffer Ebrahim were the guests of honor.
The two-day Shuttle Time teachers’ course was held on Feb. 24-25 and will be implemented in all schools of Saudi Arabia to bring awareness of the game in this football-crazy nation.
Various schools from the kingdom including Philippines School, Dunes International School, International Indian School, Al-Khozama International School, Al Muna International School took part in this tourney.
Almont 800 players from all over Saudi Arabia including Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Khobar, Jubail, Ras Tanura, including players from Bahrain and Qatar took part in the event.
The different categories included under-13 single/doubles, under-15 single/ doubles, under-17 single/doubles, Flight 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 doubles, championship singles/doubles, premier singles/doubles flights and Veterans doubles. The matches were conducted in two different venues with six courts in Al-Ettifaq Club and three courts in the Dunes International School covering 420 games over two days.
Nearly 50 junior Saudi players took part in the event under the professional training and leadership of Ammar Awad, the coach of the Saudi badminton team. Many experienced and professional players came together to be part of this two-day event.
The Saudi Badminton Committee Assistant General Secretary, Abdulaziz Al-Saghan noted that this is to be the start of an era where Saudi Arabian talents would take to badminton with many young players being mentored to take part in future local and international tournaments.
SBC had selected Evenlode Badminton Club under the patronage of EBC President Mr. Tony Abraham to be their partners in organizing their first tournament in Saudi Arabia, which is to be the first step toward many other tournaments to be organized around Saudi Arabia in the coming future.
The Tournament Committee was a mixture of Saudi Badminton Committee and Evenlode Badminton Club which included: Abdulaziz, Alayan, Tony, Fahad, Adhil, Abu Faisal, Ammar, Jaffer, Mansoor, Majeed, Babu, Shaji, Shafeek, Meharoof, Shoaib, Sudheer, Nisar, Arif, Baigue, Jamsheed, Thaju, Naufal, Noor, Ganesh, Biju, Stanley, Riju, Ratheesh, Thanveer, Biju, Azeem, Shafi, Junaid, Baigue, Khairul, Tahir, Suraj, Bhagwan.

Results (all finals):

Junior Boys

U-13 Singles A — Ethan beat Julian; U-13 Doubles A – Ahmed & Ethan beat Kleric & Julian; U-13 Singles B — Varun beat Thaha; -U-15 Singles A – Rayyan; U-15 Singles B- Salman; U-15 Doubles- Ethan & Haj beat Shayan & Siddarth; U-17 Singles — Jadder beat Johny; U-17 Doubles-Petrolinno & Ramuel beat Farhan & Musthafa.

Men Doubles
Flight 6 A: Arfie & Zherwin beat Joel Morales & Jules Guarana; Flight 6 B: Jay & Noel beat Joel & Rey; Flight 5: Jairon & Leo beat Jomy and Nousheer; Flight 4:Ganesh & Mushtaq beat Ameer & Axle; Flight 3: Nousheer & Sijin beat Noble & Santhosh; Flight 2: Rajeev & John beat Khalid &Raemuel; Flight 1: Bhagwan & Jadeer beat Siyam & Vinaykumar; Championship Doubles B: Biju & Rajesh beat Jojo & Bineesh; Championship Doubles A: Ali & Tawfik beat Maqbool & Shimjid; Premier Doubles : Jaffer & Ammar beat Ralph & Salvador

Men Singles
Flight Championship: Khaja beat Rahim; Flight Premier: Ahmed Yehya beat Mohammed Yehya.