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Upcoming major badminton tournaments in 2018

By: Swetha
Date: 19 Feb, 2018
Image Courtesy: DubaiWorldSuperseriesFinals/FB

World badminton fixture for this year has been forcing the players to be too picky with the tournaments, as world badminton governing body Badminton World Federation (BWF) dictated the outrageous rules which are mandatory. One of the rules is ‘Top 15 singles shuttlers and top 10 doubles shuttlers must play minimum of 12 tournaments and if not obeyed, must face the penalty’.


As the BWF World Tour is underway, the next biggest important tournaments lined up in the calendar are huge with the prize purse ranging from 75,000 USD to 1,500,000 USD.


Featuring six levels of tournaments, the BWF World Tour runs until 2021. The season finale in December, the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals, will have US$1.5 million prize purse for the winners. The HSBC BWF World Tour Super 1000 level boasts three million-dollar events to be held in China, England and Indonesia.


Accordingly, as Indian top players sweating hard with the training sessions for the upcoming major tournaments, it has become easy-peasy for the lower rung players who need to worry less about the tournament count to participate.


While all the lower ranked players, as always, are just needed to participate in any BWF badminton tournament to gain the respective allocated points, the top five Indian shuttlers, World no. 4 P. V. Sindhu, World No. 11 Saina Nehwal, World No. 3 Kidambi Srikanth, World N0. 11 H. S. Prannoy, and World No. 14 B. Sai Praneeth are indefatigable to achieve the major feats this year.

Complete List of top 13 upcoming badminton tournaments in 2018:

All England Open - 14 to 18 March:

Besides the China Open and the Indonesia Open, the All England Open Championship is third HSBC BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament, which holds the prize purse of 1 million USD which will be held from March 14 to 18 at Birmingham, England.


The All England Championships was a Superseries tournament from 2007 to 2016 with the period 2011 to 2016 as a Premiere Superseries status by the BWF. The 100th All England Championships were celebrated in 2010. The legends Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand were the only Indians who achieved the feat in 1980 and 2001 respectively.


21st Commonwealth Games - 4 to 15 April:

Since the first season of the Games in 1930, badminton became the part of CWG in 1966. Prakash Padukone opened the winning glory of trophies in 1978. The emanation carried to its immediate season in 1982 by Syed Modi. In 2010 Saina Nehwal and Jwala Gutta - Ashwini Ponnappa won the respective titles, followed by Parupalli Kashyap in 2014.

Malaysia Open - 26 June to 1 July:

The Malaysia Open is a HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament and is one of only five Super 750 level tournaments on the Tour. From 2008 to 2014 and 2016, the Malaysian Datuk Lee Chong Wei from men’s singles holded the trophy, followed by Chen Long in 2015 and Lin Dan in 2017. No Indian won the challenge yet.

Indonesia Open - 3 to 8 July:

The Indonesia Open is a HSBC BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament and is one of only three Super 1000 level tournaments, the others being the China Open and the All England. In 2017, Kidambi Srikanth clinched the trophy in Jakarta, which was his first of his four super series titles last year while H.S. Prannoy settled with bronze.

Thailand Open - 10 to 15 July:

The Thailand Open is a HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament. It is one of two Tour tournaments in Thailand, the other being the Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters, a Super 300 tournament.

Singapore Open - 17 to 22:

Being held in Singapore since 1987, the Singapore Open is a World Tour Super 500 tournament. The Singapore Open was a part of BWF Superseries tournament 2007 -2016 and has been hosted in Singapore Stadium, Singapore City as a Superseries tournament since then. The 2017 Singapore title was lifted by B Sai Praneeth in the all Indians final against his compatriot Kidambi Srikanth.

Japan Open - 11 to 16 September:

The Japan Open is a HSBC World Tour Super 750 tournaments on the World Tour besides China, Denmark, France, and Malaysia. While, no Indian won the title yet, Akane Yamaguchi is the first Japanese to win the title in the women’s singles category in 2012.

China Open - 18 to 23 September:

The China Open is a HSBC BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament and is one of only three Super 1000 level tournaments, the other two being the All England Championships and the Indonesia Open, which holds 1 million USD. Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal won the titles in 2014 in the respective categories followed by Sindhu in 2016.

Korea Open - 25 to 30 September:

The Korea Open is a HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament, which is one of other Super 500 tournaments on the Tour. So far, P. V. Sindhu is the only Indian to have won the maiden title, in 2017.

Denmark Open - 16 to 21 October:

The Denmark Open is a HSBC World Tour Super 750 tournament. The Denmark Open became one of BWF Superseries tournaments in 2007 and it was upgraded in 2011 to a BWF World Premier Superseries tournament. The latest six editions since 2012 have been hosted at the Odense Sports Park, Odense.   


After Prakash Padukone in 1979-1980 and Saina Nehwal in 2012, Kidambi Srikanth is the first Indian to have won the title in 2017, which is his third after Australia Open among the four super series titles.

French Open - 23 to 28 October:

The French Open is other Super 750 tournament in the Tour, which is being held since 1909 and has become one of the BWF Superseries tournament in 2007. After 16 years of winning the title by then shuttler Abhinn Shyam Gupta since 2001, World No. 3 Kidambi Srikanth able to secure the prestigious title in 2017, marking it as his fourth ever super series title in the calendar year.  


Way back in 1956, A. C. Bahree became the first Indian to have won the first ever title in the men’s doubles category partnering with C. L. Yap of Malaysia, followed by men’s singles title by Vimal Kumar, men’s doubles title by Partho Ganguli and Vikram Singh in 1983. Then Aparna Popat in 1998 followed by Siddharth Jain in 2000.

Hong Kong Open - 13 to 18 November:

The Hong Kong Open is one of the Super 500 tournaments holding the prize purse of 400,000 USD. The first ever Hong Kong Open event was held in 1982, which was won by the legend Prakash Padukone. After more than two and half decades, Saina Nehwal won the title in 2010.

HSBC BWF World Tour Finals - 12 to 16 December

The only event which has the highest prize money among all the Tour tournaments is the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals of USD 1,500,000. From 2008 to 2017, the event was called as BWF Super Series Finals which has the total prize money of one million USD.


This is the season finale badminton tournament in the BWF calendar which will feature top eight shuttlers from around the world in all the categories. In the last version of the event, Srikanth and Sindhu were the only Indians to be qualified for the Finals, wherein, Srikanth ousted in the first round and Sindhu won silver in the respective categories.


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