Shuttler Taufik the top seed in Swiss Open

JAKARTA (JP): World number five Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia is the top seed in the four-star Swiss Open and is hoping for an encounter in the final with second-seed Roslin Hashim of Malaysia.

The International Badminton Federation announced in a press release that world number seven Marlev Mainaky of Indonesia was the fourth seed in the event, which will be held from March 14 to March 18 in Basel, Switzerland.

Taufik, who only managed to reach the third round of the All England last week, will get a bye in the first round before meeting the winner of the match between Saman Ismail of Malaysia and Switzerland's Thomas Iversen.

Marlev, who moved to a Japanese club recently, also received a first-round bye and will meet the winner of Tooru Matsumoto of Japan and Christian Unternaehrer of Switzerland in the second round.

Both Taufik and Marlev will compete in the Swiss Open -- the first World Grand Prix event to use the five-game, seven-point scoring system -- after receiving invitations from event organizers.

Players, coaches and the media will be watching closely to see how the world's best fare with the new system, which, by shortening the games, is intended to inject more excitement and dynamism into the sport.

Badminton Association of Indonesia executive training director Christian Hadinata said on Tuesday he expected both players to improve upon their performances at the All England.

The second seeded Roslin, who lost to Chen Hong of China in the All England's semifinals, also has a first-round bye and will meet the winner of the match between Ronald Susilo of Singapore and a qualifier in the second round.

Third-seed Kenneth Jonassen also has a first-round bye and will await the winner of Swede Daniel Eriksson and Paulo von Scala of Switzerland.

In the women's singles, Marina Andrievskaya of Sweden is the top seed, and with China's top shuttlers not taking part in the event, she has a good shot at the title. Barring any upsets, Andrievskaya will meet second seeded Kelly Morgan of Wales in the final.

Zeng Yaqiong of China is the third seed, with Mia Audina of the Netherlands seeded fourth.

Denmark has the top seeds in the three doubles events; Michael Sogaard and Rikke Olsen in the mixed doubles, Jens Eriksen and Jesper Larsen in the men's doubles and Helene Kirkegaard and Rikke Olsen in the women's doubles.

Sogaard and Olsen are eager to win the mixed doubles title after their tough All England final defeat to China's Olympic champions Zhang Jun and Gao Ling.

The Danish duo hope to make it an all-Danish final on Sunday with Jens Eriksen and Mette Schjoldager. (yan)