Nagpur, Raipur win bid to host International Challenge Badminton tournaments in September

Nagpur and Raipur will host the International Challenge Badminton tournaments in September 2022.

As reported exclusively by Sportskeeda on May 20, Nagpur and Raipur won their bid to host international tournaments for the first time in history.

The Badminton Association of India (BAI) had requested Badminton World Federation (BWF) for two more International Challenge Badminton tournaments a couple of weeks ago.

The world governing body of sports accepted the request from BAI and allotted two more International Challenge tournaments which will be organized in Nagpur and Raipur.

Both the new tournaments will be held in September, according to the new international calendar announced by the BWF on Friday. The Raipur tournament will be held first, which will be followed immediately by Nagpur.

According to sources, both the Raipur and Nagpur tournaments will be back-to-back affairs. The exact dates of the tournaments will be announced soon by BWF and will be informed to the BAI.

International tournaments in Nagpur and Raipur will be a big boost for badminton in Central India

With the allotments of international badminton tournaments in Nagpur and Raipur, the game will get a big boost. Earlier, there were no international tournaments in the central part of the country.

However, confirmation by the BWF to the Indian bid will certainly help badminton grow at a rapid pace in the central region of the nation.

India annually conducts five BWF international tournaments. After the BWF's green signal, India will now conduct at least seven international tournaments every year.

The Indian Open World Tour Super 500 tournament is India’s most prestigious tournament and takes place in New Delhi. India also hosts the Syed Modi World Tour Super 300 tournament in Lucknow and the Odisha Open World Tour Super 100 tournament in Cuttack, Orissa.

India already has one International Challenge tournament which was held in Bengaluru late last year - the Infosys Foundation International Open. Earlier, it was known as the Tata Open and used to be held in Mumbai.

In addition to these World Tour Super tournaments, India also hosts one Infosys Foundation International Challenge in Bengaluru and one junior international tournament in Pune.

Central India’s most popular cities, Nagpur and Raipur, have hosted national level badminton tournaments earlier.

The 82nd Senior National Badminton Championship was held at the world-class Divisional Sports Complex Mankapur in Nagpur in 2017. The first-ever senior nationals in Nagpur were a grand success with the participation of all top players.

Raipur is the capital of Chhattisgarh and has an international standard indoor stadium to host big events.