Nothing will stop Edwin Ekiring from putting up a spirited performance as the main draw of the Estonian Badminton International starts on Friday. The Ugandan who is currently based in the Netherlands is in fine form going into his first outing of the year.
Ekiring did win gold in Nigeria and Zambia together with silver South Africa titles which saw him jump from 37th on the continent and back to number one. “It’s that kind of form that will see me through this weekend,” Ekiring told a local newspaper Daily Monitor on phone.
“When you train hard and start getting podium finishes, you want to maintain that, the same reason I have been working hard to stay up there,” he added. Ekiring’s first opponent will be Likka Heino from Finland and will either face polish man Maciej Poulakowski or Luka Zdenjak from Croatia if he goes past the first round.
“Will be lying if I said I don’t know anything about him (Likka Heino) he plays in our dutch league and he is a player I know very well, all i can say right now is that I will give it my best shot once I step on court,” Ekiring added. Ekiring’s world ranking stands at a disappointing 170th with 10730 point but he believes it will get better with time.
“Of course it will get better with time, at some stage last year I was ranked 320th in the world, but look at the strides I have made.” “Right now all I need to do is play tournaments, perform well and maintain my top seed status in Africa, the world ranking will get better with time,” he added. From Estonia, Ekiring will skip the Swedish Masters but will play at the Iceland International from January 22-25.