WEEKLY ROUND-UP: Sports happenings in Singapore (14-21 Feb)
SINGAPORE — Here is a round-up of sports events and developments in Singapore in the past week (14 to 21 February):
Four players reach main singles draw at Singapore Tennis Open
The men's singles main draw for the Singapore Tennis Open ATP250 tournament was completed on Sunday (21 February) with four players advancing from the qualifying rounds at the OCBC Arena.
The United States' Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Christopher Eubanks, Turkey's Altug Celikbilek and Australia's John-Patrick Smith were the winners in the second round of the qualifiers, and will take their spots in the main draw of the tournament, which runs from 22 to 28 February.
Singapore players Shaheed Alam and Roy Hobbs, who received wild-card entries into the qualifiers, were both eliminated on Saturday. Hobb lost 1-6, 1-6 to Smith, while Shaheed was defeated 1-6, 3-6 by Tunisia's Malek Jaziri.
Singapore Open badminton tournament postponed to June
The Badminton World Federation announced on Friday (19 February) that this year's Singapore Open tournament, originally scheduled for April, will now be held from 1 to 6 June. This is due to a number of tournaments which were postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the same time, the cut-off date for rankings to determine qualification to the Tokyo Olympics is also postponed from April to 15 June. This makes the rescheduled Singapore Open will now be the final tournament for Olympic qualification.
The top 38 singles players in the men and women's Race to Tokyo rankings will qualify. Singapore's Loh Kean Yew and Yeo Jia Min are on course to earn their tickets as they are 16th and 17th in their respective rankings.
FAS bids to host AFC Cup competition
The Football Association of Singapore has submitted a bid to host the group stage of this year's AFC Cup competition. The Straits Times reported that the Republic plans to host the groups in which Singapore Premier League clubs Lion City Sailors and Geylang International will feature.
An Asian Football Confederation (AFC) spokesman told The Straits Times that as many as 21 participating member associations have indicated their interest to host the 2021 AFC Champions League and AFC Cup group stage matches.
This year's AFC Cup Asean zone matches will be played from 22 to 28 June in a single-match, round-robin format at a centralised location. The winning bids will be announced by the end of the month.
ONE Championship partners with Food from the Heart
Singapore-based mixed martial arts company ONE Championship, in collaboration with the Food from the Heart non-profit organisation, reached out to local communities in Singapore on Friday (19 February) to provide essential goods and supplies to the less fortunate.
Those who participated in the event include Monica Millington, Nazee Sajedi and Joy Koh, participants in the upcoming reality television show “The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition". They were accompanied by ONE Championship stars Ritu Phogat, ONE women’s strawweight world champion Xiong Jingnan and Hiroki Akimoto.
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