2010 Pan Am Junior Badminton Championships (8/5-8/7)

The 2010 Pan Am Junior Badminton Championships was held in Santo Domingo this year. Bintang Team sent a total of 10 players to represent the US team, including Bryce Kan, Brian Duong, Priscilla Long, Bryan Chow, Tiffany Chua, Gavin Chan, Chetan Potu, and Daniel Chow. (Karen Ma and Randy Ma also qualified for the team.)

After four long days of intense competition in the hot and humid weather, Bintang Team members pulled through to win a total of 8 medals (under the US flag). The wins are as follows:

Under 11 Boys Singles 2nd - Bryce Kan
Under 11 Boys Doubles 2nd - Bryce Kan & Robert Huang*
Under 13 Girls Singles 2nd - Priscilla Long
Under 13 Mixed Doubles 2nd - Brian Duong & Priscilla Long
Under 13 Boys Doubles 1st - Brian Duong & Vinson Chiu*
Under 13 Girls Doubles 1st - Priscilla Long & Micaela Lum*
Under 17 Boys Singles 3/4 - Chetan Potu

Excellent work! We are proud of you!

2010 U.S. Junior Nationals (7/1-7/6)

It was yet another intense week at Junior Nationals this year. Our team had a great showing and proves to be getting stronger and stronger each year. We had top players in every age category and gave a good fight at every level. We are very proud of how far the kids have come along under the strong dedication of the coaches. We thank everyone for their support, hard work, and commitment throughout the entire year. And let us keep it up for the coming year. Here are the results from our team:

U9BS 1st - Eric Duong
U9BD 1st - Eric Duong
U11BS 3rd - Bryce Kan
U11GS 2nd - Karen Ma
U11MX 2nd - Bryan Kan/Karen Ma
U11BD 2nd - Bryce Kan/Ethan Low
U11GD 1st - Karen Ma/Joanna Liu*
U13BS 1st - Brian Duong
U13GS 2nd - Priscilla Long
U13BD 1st - Brian Duong/Vinson Chiu*
U13GD 1st - Priscilla Long/Micaela Lum*
U13MX 1st - Brian Duong/Priscilla Long
U15BD 5th - Bryan Chow/Justin Ma
U15BD 6th - James Wang/Christopher Kan*
U17BS 2nd - Randy Ma
U17BS 6th - Daniel Chow
U17MX 6th - Randy Ma/Tiffany Chua
U17BD 3rd - Martin Hung/Chetan Potu
U17GD 5th - Alisia Lu/Lily Wen
U19BS 3rd - Charlie Yang
U19BD 6th - Charlie Yang/Randy Ma
U22BS 3rd - Francis Yao
U22BS 4th - Jack Ma

Bintang Team Wins Big at MIT Boston Open (5/7-5/9)

Bintang Badminton's Pro Team rocked at the 2010 MIT Boston Open! It was three long days of great games with Bintang's players taking home the gold for men's singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles. A triple victory!

In mixed doubles, Holvy and partner Grace won finals in two sets. The only hard match would have been against Minh and partner Johannah in semifinals, but they decided to not play so that Minh could rest his legs (he pulled his hamstring on Saturday!) and focus on singles and doubles.

In men's singles, Jacky faced an intense semi-finals match but pulled through, to meet Minh in finals. Finals itself was a long and grueling game -- a rubber match with the third game 28-26! Jacky's reaction after Minh won: "Those two points were worth $350 each!"

In men's doubles, Holvy and Minh had an easy ride and breezed through all of their games.

It was a fun but tiring tournament for the pro team. They made us proud! Good job -- keep it up! We expect a clean sweep next year! :]

Full tournament results can be found here.

Spring Davis Open 2010 (4/24-4/25)

Great job to Team Bintang for yet another successful showing at the 2010 Spring Davis Open! With participants from Campbell, Dublin, and Sunnyvale teams as well as our pro players, our team nearly swept all the singles titles and took home a handful of the doubles titles as well. This was a huge tournament with most of the C and D draws over 64 big and high school/college students from all over present.

Coach, Topher, Minh, Holvy, Jacky, and Nate were all hard at work going around actively watching the team play. We thank them for their great efforts! ^_^ Here is a recap of the results:

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A FLIGHT

AMS 1st - Jacky Zhang

AMS 2nd - Topher Flores

ABWS 1st - Joyce Lee

AMD 1st - Holvy de Pauw/Minh Nguyen

AMD 2nd - Jacky Zhang/Topher Flores

AWD 2nd - Stella Chun/Hanh Nguyen*

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B FLIGHT

BMS 1st - Francis Yao

BMS 2nd - Jack Ma

BMS semi's - Martin Hung

BWD 1st - Joyce Lee/Tiffany Chua

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C FLIGHT

CMS 1st - Derek Chao

CMS semi's - Bryan Chow

CWS semi's - Hensley Ellefritz

CMD 1st - Francis Yao/Daniel Chow

CMD 2nd - Derek Chao/Ryan Ke

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D FLIGHT

DMS 2nd - Justin Ma

DMS semi's - James Wang

DMS semi's - Johnny Le

DWS cons - Madeline Sporkert

DMD 2nd - Matt Yim/Dung Bui

DMX 2nd - Jason Guanlao/Hensley Ellefritz

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*denotes player not from club

Again, a big hand to all those who won! Everyone has improved tremendously, even the little juniors. We hope everyone had a great time and let's keep practicing hard!

Welcome Holvy and Jacky!

We welcome Holvy de Pauw and Jacky (Fan) Zhang to our pro player team! Holvy will be primarily at Bintang Campbell and Jacky will be mainly at Bintang Sunnyvale. They are both great players and we look forward to sweeping men's categories at local and national tournaments!

Holvy de Pauw - Formerly on the Indonesia National Team and later was recruited to the Germany and Switzerland National teams. Holvy was one of the top-rising junior players on the Indonesia team with fans from all over! His major wins include 2001 Boys Singles Champion at the Indonesia National Championships, 2005 Croatian International Men's Singles Champion, and 2008 Wilson MIT Boston Open Men's Singles Winner.

Jacky (Fan) Zhang - Formerly on the China National Youth Team, Jacky is notably one of the top local men's singles players. His achievements include 2008 and 2009 Bay Area Open Men's Singles Champion, 2009 Bay Area Open Men's Doubles Champion, and 2009 Dave Freeman Open Men's Doubles Champion.

2010 Mid-Atlantic Classic (3/26-3/28)

A USAB sanctioned one-star tournament, the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Classic was held in Philadelphia the last weekend of March. Being that it was so far away, only Minh and Phu participated. It was an exciting tournament for them, as they met and played against many new faces. There are a lot of strong players in the East Coast too that they normally do not get the chance to play with! Unfortunately, the tournament was constantly behind schedule and Phu/Minh ended up being at the gym from 10am to 12am!

Minh had fairly smooth games that he was able to win in two sets all the way up to finals. The finals match was against ex-Cuban national player Ilian Perez. Minh secured his victory in three sets, to become the men's singles champion!

On the men's doubles side, Minh and Phu again met many new players and very much enjoyed their games. Semi-finals was a close, tough match against current top US doubles players Vincent/Sameer. Minh and Phu played well and stayed focus, pulling a 21-18 win in the third set. Finals proved to be tougher though and they just didn't have the spark they had the previous day, losing to Ajit/Sunil.

Overall, it was a great experience but surely nothing beats California weather and California badminton facilities! ^_^

2010 Dave Freeman Open (2/26-2/28)

A USAB sanctioned two-star tournament, the 2010 Dave Freeman Open was held at San Diego's Balboa Park the last weekend of February. The usual West Coast top U.S. contenders were mostly there, making it a familiar scene though in a different facility. Bintang's pro players participated in this tournament and had a good showing, although half of them were sick throughout the trip. :[

Minh had an exciting semi-finals match against Hock Lai Lee, the winner of most tournaments of late in men's singles. He played a very consistent game and was lucky also that his opponent was a bit out of form compared to normal. So Minh won the game in two close sets. He then faced Sattawat in finals and clinched victory in two sets, becoming the new 2010 Dave Freeman Men's Singles Champion!

Results are as follows:

Open Men's Singles Champion - Minh Nguyen
Open Men's Singles Semi-finalist - Christopher Flores
Open Men's Doubles Semi-finalist - Minh Nguyen/Phu Khuu
Open Men's Doubles Consolation - Christopher Flores/Ba Su*
Open Women's Doubles Semi-finalist - Paula O'banana/Chin Go
Open Mixed Doubles Semi-finalist - Paula O'banana/Chandra Kowi*
BMS 2nd - Dominick Lim
CMS 2nd - Nate Le
CMD Semi-finalist - Nate Le/Ryan Ngo

For full details, please check here.