All England Badminton Championship 2015

All England Badminton Championship is one of the world oldest and most prestigious Badminton tournaments. Played annually, it developed after the success of world’s first badminton tournament held in Guildford in 1898. The tournament was originally organized in three categories Men’s doubles, Women’s doubles and Mixed Doubles. Both Men and Women Singles were added later. It was eventually considered the unofficial world championship of the sport until 1977 when the International Badminton Federation launched its official championships. Since 1984 the tournament has been exclusively sponsored by Yonex.

The 2015 Championships was played from March 3^rd to March 8^th in Birmingham, England. Carolina Marin beat Saina Nehwal on Sunday to win the Women single title of the All England badminton championships. The Spaniard reigning world Champion beat the Indian champion by 17-21, 21-14, 21-7. Marin became the first left hander to win the championship in Birmingham. Saina missed to clinch a slice of history to become the first Indian woman to win the event.

Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pulella Gopichand (2001) are the only Indians to have won this title. On Saturday, Saina defeated Sun Yu of China in straight sets to become the first Indian woman to qualify for the prestigious tournament. This was only second time in a decade when two non-Chinese players played in the women’s single final at the All England Championships. In 2013, Tine Baun of Denmark beat Thai Ratchanok Inthanon in the final. In that Edition, Inthanon defeated Saina in the semis.

Saina best result in this BWF Superseries Premier event had been two Semi-final appearances in 2010 and 2013. In her previous eight appearances, starting 2007, she also made three other quarter-finals. In men’s championship, China Chen Long earns the title for men’s singles for the second time. The 26 year old player kept calm throughout the game and did not let in distractions. He played against Dane Jan O Jorgensen from Denmark. Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen from Denmark won the men’s doubles. Bao Yixin and Tang Yuanting from China won the women’s doubles. Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei from China won the mixed doubles trophy in the tournament. The 2016 edition of the tournament will be released soon.