BWF reveals revamped tournament calendar for the upcoming season

What’s the story?

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has revealed a new, revamped structure of tournaments that is to be followed from 2018. Doing away with the current Superseries and Superseries Premier events, the world body has rechristened the calendar as the World Tour that will have events with increased prize money.

The 2018 season will see tournaments divided into three grades, with the second grade comprising six levels, which encompasses all the World Tour events. Under the revised system, the world’s top 15 singles players and the top 10 doubles teams will have to play a minimum of 12 events or face a stiff fine.

In case you didn’t know

The current calendar consists of 12 Superseries and Superseries Premier events, which culminate in the season-ending World Superseries Finals in December.

The heart of the matter

Grade 1 will have the biggest events on the calendar such as the Olympics, the World Championships, the Thomas & Uber Cup and the Sudirman Cup. In Grade 2, the first level sees only one tournament -- the World Tour Finals, which is known as the season-ending World Superseries Finals now.

The tournament, which until now used to have a prize money of $1 million, will have a revised purse of $1.5 million.

The second level has the three biggest premier events -- the All England Championships, the Indonesia Open and the China Open, with all three events worth $1 million. The next level has five tournaments, each of which has a prize money of $700, 000. Seven tournaments make up Level 4 while 11 will form the next two levels.

India has three tournaments so far in the new calendar with one each in Level 4, Level 5 and Level 6. The India Open, held in New Delhi, finds itself in Level 4. Called the ‘Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta India Open’ from 2018 onwards, it will carry a prize money of $350, 000 and has been brought forward to January 30.

The Syed Modi International, which has been a regular feature in January since 2014, is now a Level 5 tournament and has been pushed back to November. In addition, Hyderabad will host a Level 6 event in the month of September.

The new rules have also discontinued the qualifying rounds in Levels 2 and 3. Thus, players outside the world’s top 32 cannot be certain of getting a chance to play the top tier events. Their participation will depend only on the withdrawals of the ones ahead of them. Apart from this, the Level 4 tournaments will have a qualifying draw of only eight players instead of the usual 16.

The elite players are also expected to perform ‘national duty’ and participate in the Thomas & Uber Cup, the Sudirman Cup and other such major events, which automatically increases their work load to at least 13-14 tournaments in a year.

The new calendar:

1. Grade 1: Major events (Olympics, World Championships, Thomas-Uber Cup Finals, Sudirman Cup)

2. Grade 2: World Tour

i) Level 1: World Tour Finals (erstwhile known as the World Superseries Finals).

ii) Level 2: All-England Championships, Indonesia Open and China Open (Premier of Premiers)

iii) Level 3: Malaysian Open, China Open, Denmark Open, French Open and Japan Open (Superseries Premier)

iv) Level 4: Malaysia Masters, Indonesia Masters, India Open, Thailand Open, Singapore Open, Korea Open, Hong Kong Open, (Superseries)

v) Level 5: Thailand Masters, Swiss Open, Spain Open, German Open, New Zealand Open, Australian Open, US Open, Chinese Taipei Open, Macau Open, Syed Modi International, Korea Masters (Grand Prix Gold)

vi) Level 6: Orleans Masters, China Level 6, Canada Open, Japan Masters, Russian Open, Vietnam Open, Hyderabad Open, Indonesia Level 6, Dutch Open, Bitburger Masters, Scotland Open (Grand Prix)

3. Grade 3: Continental circuit (International Challenge, International Series, Future Series)

What’s next?

The 2018 season kicks off with the Thailand Masters , a Grade 2 - Level 5 tournament, on January 9.

Author’s take

The increase in prize money is certainly a welcome news for the shuttlers, but scrapping the qualifying rounds in the elite events is definitely not one. The qualifiers tend to throw up some quality opponents who can shake up the draw and make the sport even more exciting.

Besides, players outside the top 32 too deserve an opportunity to play these majors. Some might have slipped down the ladder because of injuries and are working their way back. The new rules will only deprive them of such a chance and have understandably drawn criticism from the badminton fandom.