The BWF Super Series is a badminton tournament introduced by Badminton World Federation (BWF) in order to improve the quality of the sport. It was launched on December 14, 2006 and implemented in 2007.[1] The second-tiered badminton tournament is played in eleven countries (China hosts two events), with successful players invited to the Super Series final held at the year end.
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All Super Series tournaments will offer a minimum prize of USD$200,000.[2] The Super Series will offer the prize money regardless of the round from which a player is ousted, unless they go out in the qualification round. This is a new concept in badminton tournaments, and already implemented at the first Super Series held in Malaysia.[3]
Specifically, the prize money is distributed via the following formula:[4]
Round | Men's singles | Women's singles | Men's doubles | Women's doubles | Mixed doubles |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Champion | 8% | 6.9% | 7.2% | 6.1% | 5.8% |
Runner-up | 3.2% | 2.76% | 2.88% | 2.44% | 2.2% |
Semi-finalist | 1.28% | 1.1% | 1.15% | 0.975% | 0.875% |
Quarter-finalist | 0.5% | 0.44% | 0.5% | 0.5 | 0.5 |
Last 16 | 0.3% | 0.25% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.35% |
Last 32 | 0.15% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.25% |
Starting with the 2008 season, the women's winners will receive the equal prize money amount as men's winners.[5] As announced, all the single winners will receive 7.5 percent while all the double winners will receive 6.9 percent of total prize money.[6] Starting 2011 season, a winner can enjoy as high as US$90,000 following the introduction of Premier series.[7]
To standardize all the badminton tournaments, BWF also implemented a new World Ranking in 2007. Points will be calculated based on the results or the round a player reaches, including the qualification round. This ranking points also use as Super Series Ranking to determine the players for Super Series final.[8][9]
Classification | 1 | 2 | 3–4 | 5–8 | 9–16 | 17–32 | 33–64 | 65–128 | 129–256 | 257–512 | 513–1024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Super Series | 9,200 | 7,800 | 6,420 | 5,040 | 3,600 | 2,220 | 880 | 430 | 170 | 80 | 40 |
Super Series Premier | 11,000 | 9,350 | 7,700 | 6,050 | 4,320 | 2,660 | 1,060 | 520 |
Starting in 2007, players from the same nation are not separated in the main draw of the tournaments. All but the top two seeds will not be divided into two draws as they were before.[10] The top Chinese player Lin Dan has criticized the rule change.[11] 2010 onwards saw rules altered with nationality separation in the first round.[12]
Only 32 players/pair will be played in the main round, as oppose to the minimum 64 players/pair in the past tournaments. Among the 32 players/pair, only 8 players/pair will be seeded in each category. Each category will have 28 players/pair going through automatically regarded by world ranking. While the another 4 spots will be decided in the qualification round with at least 64 players/pair participate.[1][13]
Each Super Series tournament will be held in six days, with the main round in five days. However, qualification round players/pair have to play four rounds before proceeding to the main round.
Start September 2008, each tournament will only allow 16 players/pairs to play in the qualifying rounds, instead of 32 players/pairs in the past tournament to avoid a big strain between the qualifiers.[14]
Starting with the 2008, each Super Series tournaments must present eight international certificated and accredited umpires, as opposed to the 2007 where each tournaments can present local umpires,[15] after the outcry of several players during the 2007 tournaments.[16]
Each year, the Badminton World Federation arranges twelve tournaments throughout Europe and Asia, with China traditionally holding two tournaments each season, the sole country to do so as permitted by the BWF.
Starting in the 2011 season, five of the twelve Super Series tournament are to be promoted as the Premier series, with a minimum prize fund of between US$350,000 and US$400,000 in the 2012 season.[17] The five Premier tournaments will be the All England Open, China Open, Denmark Open, Indonesia Open and Korea Open. The Swiss Open is to be dropped from the Super Series line up, and the India Open added in its place.[18]
Super Series final is a season ending badminton tournament which will be held in nearly end of the year in one of the fixed venue in the world. It includes the world's best players by the Super Series ranking. Only top eight players in the Super Series ranking will be participating, but it will offer USD $500,000 in prizes, more than two times the prize money awarded in Super Series tournaments.[19]
If two or more players are tie in ranking, the selection of players will based on the following criteria:
The 2007 final, however, was cancelled.[20]
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