# BWF Super Series

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 tournament is played in eleven countries (China hosts two events), with successful players invited to the Super Series final held at the year end.

## Features

### Prize money

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] $Total\ prize\ money\ \times \frac{Percentage}{100}$ 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 7.9 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]

### World Ranking points

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 Super Series Super Series Premier 1 2 3–4 5–8 9–16 17–32 33–64 65–128 129–256 257–512 513–1024 9,200 7,800 6,420 5,040 3,600 2,220 880 430 170 80 40 11,000 9,350 7,700 6,050 4,320 2,660 1,060 520

### Nationality separation

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]

### Entries

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]

### Umpires

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]

## Tournaments

Countries already have Super Series tournament
Premier Series
Super Series

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 Masters Finals

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 players which participated in the most Super Series tournaments;
• The players which collected the most points in Super Series tournaments starting July 1.

The 2007 final, however, was cancelled.[20]

## References

1. ^ a b "BWF Launches Super Series". Badminton Australia. 2006-12-15.
2. ^ "New Super Series to raise prize money & profile". Badders.com.
3. ^ "First round losers to take home RM1,050". The Star. 2007-01-13.
4. ^ "BWF Super Series - Proposed Distribution of Prize Money". Archived from the original on 2008-10-10.
5. ^ Paul, Rajes (2007-12-18). "Female badminton winners to get same purse as the men". The Star.
6. ^ "Gender Equality - BWF walks the talk". Badminton World Federation.
7. ^ "BWF: Premier Super Series mandatory for top shuttlers". The Star. 2010-09-15. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
8. ^ "New World Ranking Points". Badminton World Federation. Archived from the original on June 28, 2007.
9. ^ "Overview Ranking". Badminton World Federation. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
10. ^ "No more nationality separation". News Straits Times. 2006-12-18. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
11. ^ "China’s Lin Dan hits out at BWF over rule changes". The Star. 2007-01-16.
12. ^ "Regulations for Super Series". Badminton World Federation.
13. ^ Paul, Rajes (2006-12-18). "Badminton: BWF spice things up". The Star.
14. ^ "Changes to Qualifying Rounds". Badminton World Federation.
15. ^ "BWF push for international umpires at Super Series events". Badminton World Federation.
16. ^ Boopathy, K.M. (2007-12-04). "Neutral umpires for fairplay". News Straits Times. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
17. ^ Gilmour, Rod (2010-07-19). "Badminton's All England set for March date as second Premier Super Series event". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 30 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
18. ^ "Indian Open to become a Super Series event from 2011". Zeenews.com. 2010-05-22. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
19. ^ "Badminton-IBF announce introduction of new Super Series". Yahoo!7 Sports.
20. ^ "Super Series Finals 2007 to be confirmed". Badminton World Federation.