2021 AZBC ARIZONA BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS

May 22 & 29, 2021, Mesa...

Moving back to a more regularly scheduled tournament season, we were able to host the 10th Annual 2021 AZBC ARIZONA BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS within one month of our normal annual dates. It was fantastic to have such great participation from Tucson and throughout the valley. About 60 entrants battled mightily in the Open, B & C, Kids, and Senior divisions over two consecutive Saturdays. As usual for this tournament, all the doubles events were held the first Saturday, and the Singles and Mixed events were held the second Saturday.

On an individual level, the tournament celebrated the 3-year residency of Hiroki and Hitomi Sato from Japan who returned to their home country a few days after the tournament. They are both in the medical field, outstanding badminton players, and impeccable sports. Hiroki is a renowned surgeon who was on loan to the Mayo Clinic. They will be greatly missed as a regular part of our badminton family. Not only are they leaving Arizona in style with multiple state championship titles between them, but they were both instrumental in saving a visitor's life who suffered a heart attack about a year and a half ago at the club! Together, the Satos collected the 2021 Open Women Singles, Open Men Singles, Open Men Doubles (Hiroki with Eldwin Sanding), and Open Mixed Doubles together as a team. They just missed the perfect 5-for-5 sweep when Hitomi, teamed with Siwei Yan, lost the Open Women Doubles by only 3 points in a hard fought three-game final.

Here are the final results:

Open Women Singles: Hitomi Sato def. Yuni Yeoh; 21-23,21-14,21-14

Open Men Singles: Hiroki Sato def. Chinmai Basavaraj; 21-17,22-20

Open Women Doubles: Fion Huang/Yuni Yeoh def. Hitomi Sato/Siwei Yan; 15-21,21-17,21-18

Open Men Doubles: Eldwin Sanding/Hiroki Sato def. Chinmai Basavaraj/YuanJea Hew; 21-18,17-21,21-16

Open Mixed Doubles: Hiroki Sato/Hitomi Sato def. Eldwin Sanding/Yuni Yeoh; 21-16,26-24

Other winners (not including the consolation events): SINGLES-- BWS: Neha Shakir; CWS: Charity Mattingly; SWS: Lin Zhang; BMS: Aaron Schneider; SMS: Albert Sue; DOUBLES-- BWD: Nihira Sane/Rujuta Sane; BMD: Siby James/Cameron Ohoro; JrD: Nihira Sane/Katheryn Yi; SWD: Karina Defago/Sherry Yuan; SMD: Guy Chadwick/Jasper Lim; MIXED-- BMX: Albert Sue/Sherry Yuan; SMX: Chirag Ghoudhary/Karina Defago