The $950,000 India Open — the country’s biggest badminton tournament — will likely shift to February or November from 2027 as the Badminton World Federation (BWF) decides on the BWF World Tour hosts for the 2027-2030 cycle later this year.
While it is likely to retain its Super 750 status, the total prize money could also increase by $30,000-$40,000. “Discussions with BWF are still on. The final decision will be made towards the middle of the year,” a Badminton Association of India (BAI) official told HT on Wednesday.
BWF is likely to increase the prize money for most World Tour events.
Originally slotted in March till 2019, India Open wasn’t held in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. When it returned in 2022, it was slotted in January.
All England demotion?
It has been reliably learnt that there are discussions within BWF about demoting the All England Open Badminton Championships – once considered the unofficial World Championships – from Super 1000 to Super 750 status.
All Super 1000 tournaments — All England Open, China Open, Malaysia Open and Indonesia Open — have a total prize purse of $1.45 million. With the new cycle, the prize money could touch around $2 million. If a tournament is unable to meet the financial requirements, it could get demoted.
While four Super 1000 events will continue to be held in a year, the Super 750 events could be reduced from six to four.
League-cum-knockout
The Super 1000 events could also be turned into a league-cum-knockout competition from 2027 onwards. A final decision on this will be taken during the BWF Council meeting later in the year. Traditionally, badminton tournaments are knockouts, except at the Olympics, Thomas Cup, Uber Cup and Sudirman Cup which are played in a league-cum-knockout format.
