The 2014 New Zealand Open Grand Prix was the fifth grand prix badminton tournament of the 2014 BWF Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix and also part of the New Zealand Open championships which has been held since 1927 in Whanganui.[2] This tournament organised by the Match Point Event Ltd., with the sanctioned from the BWF.[3] There are 240 players from 16 countries competed at this tournament.[4] Players chased world ranking points, to qualifying for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and World Championships.[1] The tournament consisted of both men's and women's singles and doubles draws as well as a mixed doubles event.[5]
Below is the tables with the point distribution for each phase of the tournament based on the BWF points system for the Grand Prix event.[7]
Winner
Runner-up
3/4
5/8
9/16
17/32
33/64
65/128
129/256
257/512
513/1024
5,000
4,250
3,500
2,750
1,920
1,170
460
220
90
40
25
Prize money
The total prize money for this year tournament is US$50,000. Distribution of prize money will be in accordance with BWF regulations.[3]
Event
Winner
Finals
Semifinals
Quarterfinals
Last 16
Singles
$3,750
$1,900
$725
$300
$175
Doubles
$3,950
$1,900
$700
$362.50
$187.50
Men's singles
A former world No.1 and also London Olympics semifinalist Lee Hyun-il competed in this event as an unseeded player.[5][8] He reach the third round after retired from the match to Tan Chun Seang with the score 21–14, 2–1.[9] The top seed, Hsu Jen-hao reach the final match but was defeated by his compatriot Wang Tzu-wei who was seeded 4 with the straight games 21–9, 21–13.[10]
The top seed in this event were Pai Hsiao-ma, Cheng Chi-ya of Chinese Taipei, Millicent Wiranto of Indonesia, and Michelle Chan Ky of New Zealand. The host representation Chan ended earlier in the second round.[11] The top seed Pai fell in the quarter-finals. She was defeated by Nozomi Okuhara of Japan. In their previous 2 meetings, Okuhara has always been the unseeded while Pai always had a seed rank, however, Okuhara has reigned supreme both times.[12] At the end of the women's singles event, Okuhara clinched the title and also making this victory as her first senior international title.[13]
The New Zealand third seeds Anna Rankin and Madeleine Stapleton were upset in the second round, losing to Chen Szu-yu and Cheng Chi-ya of Chinese Taipei in straight games.[11] The top seed from Malaysia Ng Hui Ern and Ng Hui Lin were fall in the quarter-finals, they were lost to Japanese pair Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the rubber game. The fourth seeded from Australia won the women's doubles title after beat Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito in thrilling three game final.[15]
