China's Lin Dan and India's Saina Nehwal are the feature players at the Australian Badminton Open and are hoping to increase the profile of the sport in the country.
Lin Dan is known as the David Beckham of badminton. He’s a hero in his sport as well as being a part time model and multi-millionaire.
This is the first time he’s played in Australia where the crowds and the fan base are much smaller.He told SBS he’s looking forward to playing in Australia regardless of the crowd size.
The 30-year-old is the first man to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals and is a five-time world champion.
The superstar, however, isn’t adverse to controversy. He’s known for being hot headed at times, but that hasn’t discouraged his loyal fans.
"With looks like this how could you not be a fan. So he's a sex symbol? Absolutely. No doubt about it,” says Dan fan, Vera Babanko.
Two hundred other international players are competing at the Open including India's number one player, Saina Nehwal, who is also one of the country's highest earning athletes.
"Indians look up to me all over the world,” says Ms Nehwal. “Badminton has picked up a lot all over the world but of course compared to tennis it's not up to that level."
The 24 year old is ranked ninth in the world, but she's leading the popularity stakes.
She has more than 3.5 million Facebook followers, dwarfing tennis stars Serena Williams and Anna Kournikova.
“They know I’m here, they see my Facebook page and they see that my matches are happening,” Ms Nehwal says. “They can come and see me play and so it's good they're following me"
The event organisers say they are expecting over ten thousand people at the tournament by the end of the week, but on Thursday, only a few hundred showed up.
Badminton star and cover girl Saina Nehwal (Twitter)
The hope is that the event will garner a larger fan base for badminton in Australia, says tournament director Loke Poh Wong.
“The promotion it's generating in the media and all the hype that [Lin Dan] is generating is definitely a positive to this sport.”
The badminton stars say that while they are looking forward to hitting the court, they also can’t wait to see a bit of Australia.
“I love Australia,” says Saina Nehwal. “It's a really wonderful place and I hope I get some time to see Sydney."
Lin Dan says what he’s looking forward to the most is petting a koala.
