Vaughan Wins First Badminton Title in 2006 Today at the Final of the Mauritius Open in Rose Hill Richard defeated Italian No1 Klaus Raffeiner in two close games to win this the Mauritius Open in his first competitive tournament back after a lengthy period out with Toxoplasmosis.

The final score was 21/12, 21/18.


After the match Richard said “the scores don’t quite show how close he match was, it was very close throughout, and in the 2nd second set there were a few key points I won in the middle of the match which were crucial, Klaus has improved a lot since the last time I have played him and I am sure he will do well the next years. The Mauritius International win is important in many ways, first the hard floor mixed with hard matches really tested my body, and it was very good that everything was OK, secondly I beat some quality players
despite being nowhere near 100% with poor preparation the last weeks, and a small training period, finally the tournament is exactly what I had planned in preparation for the Commonwealth Games, things could not have worked out better. The last year has been very difficult, and a lot of people have been very supportive so I would like to thank them very much, hopefully I can go on from here and get back to my normal level.”

I would like to thank my club IMBC for being understanding throughout my period of illness, and again this weekend I missed important club matches in order to prepare for the Commonwealth Games.