The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced on Saturday that the Indian Open has been upgraded from Super 500 to Super 750 status. The badminton supreme body further revealed that there will be four more stops on the BWF World Tour from 2023 to 2026 as part of the expansion. plans announced Saturday.
The new 31-event World Tour schedule, which includes the year-end BWF World Tour Finals, will see more Super 1000, Super 750 and Super 500 tournaments, providing greater prize money opportunities for players. The announcement caps off an exciting bidding process that has generated strong interest from all host bidders.
BWF General Secretary Thomas Lund said the BWF World Tour 2023-2026 promises to elevate the status of badminton around the world. “Badminton is one of the fastest growing sports in the world with unprecedented participation and fan base. More tournaments give us a fantastic opportunity to improve the reach of the sport around the world, not just in established territories but also in new ones. It also allows more players to enter our elite circuit and gain valuable experience,” he said.
“We have been very encouraged by the large number of high quality offers we have received and this bodes well for a bigger and better tour over the next four years. This allows us to commit to higher prices , greater television and online coverage, and spectacular presentation, all contributing to an enhanced world-class sports product that we seek.” Lund has confirmed that there will be no change to current player commitment obligations.
Highlights of the BWF’s expansion plans include: The Malaysian Open joins the English Open, China Open and Indonesia Open as the highest level Super 1000 tournaments in the tour.
The Indian Open and Singapore Open were promoted to Super 750 status. Existing Super 750 hosts from China, Denmark, France and Japan retained their status. The Super 500 level welcomes host cities from three new continents with tournaments in Australia, Canada and Finland, joining tournaments in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and an additional new host in Japan.
Two existing Super 100 tournaments have been elevated to the BWF World Tour Super 300 level: HYLO Open and Orleans Masters. The expansion is funded by a significant investment from BWF and its business partner Infront over four years.
A host for the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals will be announced at a later date. The BWF Tour Super 100 hosts will also be announced separately. (ANI)
(This story has not been edited by the Devdiscourse team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)