NEW DELHI: India Open – the country’s biggest badminton tournament – maintained its status as a Super 750 event despite the organisational issues it faced here last month.
It will continue to be held in New Delhi.
However, Syed Modi India International was downgraded from Super 300 to Super 100 as the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Monday announced tournament hosts for the revamped 36-tournament BWF World Tour cycle from 2027 to 2030. The Lucknow tournament had maintained Super 300 status ever since the BWF World Tour was introduced in 2018.
The India Open had come under massive criticism after players had complained of not maintaining hygienic conditions, monkeys entering the stadium and birds and bird excreta disturbing play.
Also, the two Super 100 tournaments – Guwahati Masters and Odisha Masters – that India hosts in the current cycle have been dropped from the World Tour. The calendar will be announced at a later date.
Interestingly, Super 1000s have been increased from four to five tournaments as Denmark Open has been upgraded from the Super 750 level to join China Open, All England Open, Indonesia Open and Malaysia Open at the top. As reported by HT earlier this month, the Super 1000 tournaments will become league-cum-knockout events to be held over 11 days.
Super 750 tourneys have been reduced from six to five while Super 500 competitions remain nine. Super 300 have been reduced to eight from 10 with both Syed Modi and Korea Open not making the cut. Super 100 events have also been reduced from 10 to eight tournaments. The host for the year-ending BWF World Tour Finals, with an unprecedented total prize purse of $3 million, will be announced later.
Also, the prize money for each category has been increased with all Super 1000 tournaments having a minimum prize money of $2 million (up from $1.45 million), Super 750 $1.1 million (up from $950,000), Super 500 $560,000 (up from $500,000), Super 300 $290,000 (up from $250,000) and Super 100 $140,000 (up from $120,000).
Also, every major BWF tournament will be a 12-day event from 2027 unlike the current week-long event. The BWF World Championships is set to become a league-cum-knockout event while the prestigious Thomas, Uber and Sudirman Cups will see an expansion with the number of teams increasing from 16 to 24.