First South Tyrolean victory in a world ranking tournament in 27 years

The 18-year-old Yasmine Hamza won the tournament in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) thanks to convincing performances. She moves up to position 160 in the world rankings. Hamza wants to be the first South Tyrolean badminton player to qualify for the Olympic Games.

In 1995, record Italian champion Klaus Raffeiner from Meran on Cyprus became the first and so far only South Tyrolean to win a world ranking tournament in the individual. Since then there have been 62 podium places for South Tyrol, 13 of them in the individual, but until yesterday there was no more tournament victory. Yasmine Hamza from Bolzano ended the long dry spell. With three tournament victories (two in doubles with Katharina Fink), she is already the most successful South Tyrolean badminton player at international level at just 18.

Hamza, who played for SSV Bozen, was not among the eight seeded players in Santo Domingo (International Series category). After two easy victories, she had to fight hard in the quarterfinals to keep the upper hand against Brazilian Jeisiane Alves in three sets. In the semifinals, Hamza eliminated US-Indian Disha Gupta (BWF No. 104) 21:16, 21:18. She presented herself as very strong, both playfully and mentally. In yesterday's final against Slovenia's Petra Polanc, Hamza was unstoppable with a score of 21:11, 21:9.

Yasmine Hamza is making a leap forward in the world rankings. © FIBA/PM SBS

Hamza's doubles partner Katharina Fink lost to Polanc in round one. Fink had impressed the week before at the Italian International (International Challenge category) and defeated, among others, the Malaysian national player Siti Nurshuhaini in her three qualifying victories.

Hamza will move up from 176 to 160 in the world rankings tomorrow. The world rankings are still distorted due to the pandemic because results from 2019 still count. If you only take the results of one year into account, Hamza would already be ranked 80th. This placement would probably be enough to qualify for the Olympics. SBS head coach Csaba Hamza, Erika Stich (as on-site trainer), mental trainer Gabriele Ghirardello and the athletic trainers Stefano Camin and Federico Tiribello are happy with Hamza.

Hamza and Fink will next represent Italy at the Mediterranean Games, before training camps and tournaments in Asia in the summer.

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First South Tyrolean victory in a world ranking tournament in 27 years

Almost three decades after Klaus Raffeiner, South Tyrol can once again celebrate winning a world ranking tournament in singles.

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