Wilmslow’s Matthew Nottingham accepts he has a tough job on his hands if he wants to make it to the first round of the All England Open Badminton Championships but that won’t stop the badminton star from trying.
Held at Birmingham’s NIA, the Championships kick off on Tuesday March 4 with the qualifying rounds and Nottingham will be doing his best to progress in both the men’s and the mixed doubles events.
It will not be an easy feat to get through to the main draw in either however with Nottingham and men’s doubles partner Christopher Coles drawn against top qualifying seeds Wahyu Nayaka Arya Pankaryanira and Ade Yusuf of Indonesia.
He will also face top seeds Kona Tarun and Ashwini Ponnappa of India in the mixed doubles qualifying alongside partner Lauren Smith.
But despite the tough draw, Nottingham admits he will draw motivation from his dream of competing regularly on the big stage.
“It will be tough to qualify. There’s some partnerships who have been in the top ten and are only qualifying because they’ve swapped partner,” said Nottingham.
“For the men’s doubles I’m really, really pushing to get to the first round at least. We had a good chance last year but we had a tough draw. We had the number one seeds in the qualifier and got beat and we’ve got the top seeds again.
“My aim is definitely to be in the top five in the world. I want to be pushing for Super Series titles and World titles, that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.
“We need to be winning more tournaments then we can get into the proper, higher level tournaments and then we can look to start winning them.”
Nottingham will however go into the tournament buoyed by a strong showing at last month’s English National Badminton Championships.
The badminton star reached the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles and the semis of the men’s doubles before falling to top seeds Chris Adcock and Andrew Ellis.
And currently training at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes, the 21-year-old believes the young crop of emerging players will keep driving each other on.
“We’ve got a lot of guys around my age who have the ability to be at the top and we could have three or four disciplines pushing for big titles,” added Nottingham.
“It’s only a possibility at the moment but I believe with the set-up where I am I can work my way up.”
Tickets for the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships at the NIA in Birmingham are available at www.allenglandbadminton.com or call the box office on 0844 444 9994.
