Kiwi Pairs up with Olympic Medalist at Skycity NZ Open

Oliver Leydon-Davis is no stranger to flying the flag for New Zealand badminton, he has been amongst the leading group of players for the past 4 or 5 years now, typically in partnership with his long time mate Kevin Dennerly-Minturn in men’s doubles and younger sister Susannah Leydon-Davis in mixed doubles competition.

His appearance at the SKYCITY New Zealand badminton Open at the North Shore Events Centre this week will however signal a marked change in his career. The 24 year old has moved his base from Europe to Asia, taking up a 2-year contract with X-TRM Sporting Goods and in the process finds himself playing alongside brand new partners, this week partnering an Olympic Games medalist.

The Waikato product is training in Taiwan with 5-6 other men's doubles players, and Ruud Bosch from the Netherlands, a Dutch international representative since 2006, who is coaching and also playing. Leydon-Davis admits the challenge of the new contract and opportunity was as much mental as physical, with the offer coming right after he had made a call to return home to New Zealand and the very real possibility of a ‘real job’.

“The move away again has been fine, the challenge was more making the decision to go against my original plans and roll the dice again. The offer came out of the blue in December last year, so off I went and spent January in Taiwan as a trial month and really enjoyed it and made the decision to give it a shot.

“But yes there are a lot of differences here to being in Europe, which has taken some getting used to. But the best part - and also the most difficult challenge so far has been being the player in the group with the lowest on-court skill level. So it's great, because I'm tested every day and forced to get better to be competitive.”

And after years spent building a partnership with Dennerly-Minturn (who himself has returned to New Zealand to pursue other career options), Leydon-Davis admits that finding a new fulltime partner is not proving easy and will pair up with Beijing Olympic Games bronze medalist Lee Jae Jin (KOR).

“Nothing has been confirmed yet for a new long term playing partner, the SKYCITY New Zealand Open will be my 3rd tournament and 3rd different partner. It's been a real trial period so far to try and find what's going to work best. The language barrier is something else that needs to be overcome, but as always with a well prepared and thought out plan it can be minimised. Performances so far have been okay, no great results yet though.”

What chances then of a ‘breakthrough’ performance at his home SKYCITY New Zealand Open?

“First and foremost the goal is to play well. We have a tough draw with Chinese opponents first up, although I played against one of them in a China Challenge back in January. It will be good to come out on top this time, but it will be difficult as always. Most of all I'm looking to enjoy playing on home court again and that will go a long way to producing my best badminton.”

And longer term Leydon-Davis is not counting anything out, including a tilt at a second Commonwealth Games and possibly the Olympics in 2020.

“It is difficult to say specifically at this stage what the long term future is to be honest. I'm doing everything I can to be in the best shape possible for a crack at 2018/2020. Without putting numbers/specifics on it right now this opportunity (with X-TRM in Asia) is the best that is available to me at the moment so I'm going to take it with both hands and make the most of my chance to become the best that I can. If I do that, I'll be in the best position to produce my highest level when the time comes. But until then I've got a lot of work to do to start pushing towards semi-finals and finals of international challenge and higher tournaments, and contribute to the New Zealand team by becoming the best that I can.”

Leydon-Davis’ former partner Kevin Dennerly-Minturn is partnering Australian Robin Middleton in the men’s doubles and faces the 7th seeds from Indonesia in the opening round.

The men’s singles main draw features eight Kiwis while the women’s singles will see five New Zealanders hoping to progress into the latter stages of the tournament, all though face tough opposition if they are to progress in a high quality field.

The youngest player in the tournament is Tamara Otene (North Harbour) and at just over 14 years the Westlake Girls High student will have every reason to be nervous about her first round match. Otene was given a free pass into the main draw from qualifying thanks to some withdrawals in what is a great opportunity for the youngster. Other Kiwis to pick up late entries into the main draw include Vicki Copeland, Soomi Lina Lee and Gaea Mari Galvez.

New Zealanders in the main draw at the SKYCITY New Zealand Badminton Open
Qualifying was played out today, Tuesday 28th. Championship rounds start on Wednesday 29th April. All games at the North Shore Events Centre.

Men’s Doubles: Oliver Leydon-Davis & Lee Jae Jin (KOR), Kevin Dennerly-Minturn & Robin Middleton (AUS), Maoni Hu He & Kent Palmer, Abhinav Manota & Dylan Soedjasa
Men’s Singles: Maika Phillips, Dylan Soedjasa, Brock Matheson, Callum Harfield, Kent Palmer, Jonathan Curtin, Abhinav Manota, Maoni Hu He
Women’s Doubles: Emma Chapple & Danielle Tahuri, Annika Horbach GER & Maria Mata Masinipeni, Sally Fu & Christine Zhang, Erena Calder-Hawkins & Selena Wu, Gaea Mari Galvez & Tamara Otene, Tiffany Ho (AUS) & Angie Leung, Vicki Copeland & Anona Pak, Kelly Stern & Justine Villegas, Alyse Derby & Rebecca Goddard, Soomi Lina Lee & Kylie Luo
Women’s Singles: Alyse Derby, Tamara Otene, Vicki Copeland, Soomi Lina Lee, Gaea Mari Galvez
Mixed Doubles: Joe Wu & Hung Shih Han (TPE), Brock Matheson & Angie Leung, Shane Thomas Masinipeni & Maria Mata Masinipeni, Kevin James Dennerly-Minturn & Danielle Tahuri, Maika Phillips & Anona Pak

Tournament facts and stats:

256 players - 30 currently ranked inside the top 50 in the world - former Olympic and World Championship medalists - current and former world junior champions - 22 countries represented - 54 players Indonesia - 27 Malaysia - 19 China - 13 Japan - 120 volunteers - US$120,000 prize money (richest tournament ever in NZ) - Grand Prix Gold status - Broadcast to over 50 countries - Estimated viewing audience of 220 million plus

SKYCITY NZ Open

Date: April 28 to May 3

Prize money: USD$120,000

Venue: North Shore Events Centre

TV broadcast: Sky Sport NZ and globally through IMG to over 50 countries and an estimated viewing audience of 220 million

Sponsors: SKYCITY, One Pure – official water supplier, X-TRM – official equipment and apparel supplier, ATEED

Website: www.nzbadmintonopen.com

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