The Arctic Open badminton tournament kicks off today in Vantaa

“The lineup is top-notch. The Vantaa tournament is even more high level than the badminton Olympic tournament,” says Mr. Veli-Matti Kallislahti, Sports Director of the City of Vantaa.

Finnish players will be seen on the court right from the opening day on Tuesday, October 8, with young prodigy Nella Nyqvist and this year’s Finnish Championship silver medalist Petra Saarnivaara playing in the women’s singles, and Robin Jäntti and Iikka Heino in the men’s doubles. On Wednesday, fresh European Championship medalist Joakim Oldorff and two women’s doubles pairs will also take to the court.

Badminton is one of the world’s largest sports, so hosting a World Tour event in Finland and Vantaa is a significant event on an international level. The Finnish competition will distribute over $400,000 in prize money, the largest sum in any Finnish sports event.
 

The rights to host World Tour events are granted for four years at a time. Finland applied for and received the competition for 2023-26 in Vantaa. Finland is also the only new European host country on the 2023-26 tour, and the Arctic Open is the only Super 500 level tournament in Europe.
 

“This tournament’s TV broadcasts will reach over half a billion households worldwide. It says a lot about the popularity of badminton. Vantaa will be prominently visible globally this week,” Kallislahti rejoices.

You can come and enjoy the high-level matches in person at Energia Arena. Tickets are available in advance at lippu.fi/artist/arctic-open/.
 

The competition can also be followed on YLE Areena starting Thursday, October 10, and on YLE TV2 on Saturday, October 12, and Sunday, October 13.
 

The World Tour culminates in the World Tour Finals event in China in December, where the top eight players or pairs in each discipline will compete. The finals will feature a prize pool of two million dollars.
 

For more information about the competition: arcticopen.fi