Badminton Tournaments are categorized into 3 grades by the BWF. The amount of world ranking points depends on different grades and levels of the tournament. The Grade 1 tournaments are the BWF Major events that fetch the greatest number of points and Grade 3 tournaments award the least number of points.
In this article, I have enlisted all the Grade 1 tournaments categorized by the BWF. These tournaments gift the greatest number of points but there is no prize money entitled to the events.
The most prestigious tournaments are the Summer Olympic Games, BWF World Championships, Thomas Cup, Uber Cup, Sudirman Cup, World Junior Championships, Para-Badminton World Championships, and BWF World Senior Championships.
While the Summer Olympics is held once in every four years, the BWF World Championships are held every year and gifts the highest-ranking points to the players. The Uber Cup, Sudirman Cup, and Thomas Cup are team-based events where players play for their respective countries.
Let’s look at each of them in detail.
Olympic Games
The 1992 Summer Olympics introduced Badminton as an official sport which was held in Barcelona, Spain. Since then, badminton is part of seven editions of the Olympics till now. Overall, 69 different countries have appeared at the Olympic badminton competitions with 19 of them appearing all seven times.
Badminton first appeared as a demonstration sport at the 1972 Olympics. In its 1992 inaugural Olympics, only four events were held, singles and Doubles for both men and women. There were four medals awarded with 2 bronze medals. The 1996 Atlanta Olympics saw the joining of mixed doubles category and from here only three medals were awarded to the players.
The BWF ranking list is used to determine the qualification for the Olympic event.
Generally, 29 singles players and 19 doubles pairs are selected. Usually, each participating nation is allowed to send only one player from each category but there are exceptions if-
- If the nation has two players at the top in the ranking list, then both of them are allowed to qualify.
- Moreover, the host of the Olympics can select one male and female singles player in each of the singles event. So, if the country has players in the top-ranking list, then more than 1 player will be able to represent the country.
BWF World Championships
The BWF World Championships is a tournament that offers the highest-ranking points along with the Summer Olympic Games. The tournament started in 1977 and was held once every three years till 1983.
From 1985 it became a biennial event till 2005. Since 2006, it has become an annual event on the BWF calendar with a goal to give more chances for players to be crowned as ‘World Champions’. However, the tournament is not held in the Summer Olympics year.
So far, only 20 countries have produced a medal in the tournament- ten in Asia, eight in Europe, one in North America and one in Oceania.
World Junior Championships
The BWF World Junior Championships is organized by the BWF to crown the best junior badminton player in the World. It is a tournament designed for players below 19 years of age. The Championship is held annually and consists of two competitions:
- A mixed Team Championship (Suhandinata Cup)
- Individual Championships (Eye Level Cup)
Previously, from 1987 to 1991, the tournament was known as Bimantara World Junior Invitational which was held in Indonesia. The first edition of the World Junior Championships started in 1992 which was held biannual till 2006. Starting from 2008, it has been an annual event.
China, Korea, and Indonesia have been the most successful national teams of the Championship.
Para-Badminton World Championships
The Para-Badminton World Championships is a biannual event organized by the BWF. Previously, it was organized under Para-Badminton World Federation (PBWF) before it decided to merge with BWF in June 2011. The first Championship was held in 1998 in Amersfoort, Netherlands.
The para-badminton players with the highest ranks compete with each other across six classifications- 2 in the Wheelchair Sport Class, 3 in the Standing Sport Class, and 1 in the Short Stature Sport Class.
The Tokyo Olympics will be the first Olympic Games to include Para-Badminton.
Thomas Cup (BWF World Men’s Team Championships)
The Thomas Cup is an international badminton competition among teams representing member nations of the BWF. It started in 1949 in Preston, England, and was the idea of Sir Alan George Thomas, a highly successful English Badminton player of the early 1900s. Initially, it was a triannual event but since 1982, the tournament is conducted every two years.
The matches are broken down into 3 singles and 2 doubles matches and a total of 16 teams compete in the championship. Moreover, the tournament is played parallel to the Women’s Team Championship, known as Uber Cup.
Since its inception, only five countries have won the Championship- Indonesia (13 titles), China (10 titles), Malaysia (5 titles), Japan (1 claim), Denmark (1 title).
Uber Cup (BWF World Women’s Team Championships)
Similar to the Thomas Cup, the Uber Cup is a major international badminton competition that is contested by women’s national badminton teams. Started in 1956 as a triannual event, is now a biennial event from 1984.
The tournament is named after a British women’s badminton player, Betty Uber, who in 1950, had the idea of hosting a women’s event similar to the men’s Thomas Cup.
Since its inception, only five countries have won the title- China (14), Japan (6), Indonesia (3), United States (3), Korea (1).
Sudirman Cup (BWF World Team Championships)
The Sudirman Cup, commonly known as the BWF World Team Championships, takes place every two years. The Cup is named after Dick Sudirman, a former Indonesian Badminton player and founder of the Badminton Association of Indonesia.
The first Sudirman Cup tournament took place in 1989 in Indonesia. There is no prize money, the players play for their respective country to earn BWF World Ranking points and prestige.
There are a total of five matches in every tie, which consists of men and women’s singles, men and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.
The format involves 12 teams split into 4 groups of 3 teams each. The top two teams from each group advance to the quarter-finals which is a knockout featuring 8 teams.
To date, there are only three countries that have been successful at winning the Sudirman Cup- China (11), South Korea (4), and Indonesia (1).
BWF World Senior Championships
The BWF World Senior Championships is a tournament sanctioned by the BWF. The tournament started in 2003 and has been held biennially since then. It takes place in odd-numbered years on a date decided by the BWF. The winners are awarded gold medals; however, it does not offer any prize money.
The following age groups compete across five disciplines- 35+, 40+, 45+, 50+, 55+, 60+, 65+, 70+. Member nations are allowed to enter 4 male and female singles players, 8 male and 8 female players in doubles, and 4 male and 4 female players in mixed doubles. England leads the medal count with 228 medals so far.
Different Formats Of Badminton Tournaments
Single Elimination
This is the most common format in which once a player loses a match, he/she is eliminated from the tournament altogether.
Tournaments: All BWF Superseries
Round Robin
In this format, players/teams are put into different groups and each player plays against every other player in the group. The top players from each group compete in the progressive rounds.
Tournaments: Olympic Games and BWF HSBC World Tour Finals
Team Play
In a team play, multiple matches are played in best of 5 series which includes all the five disciplines in badminton.
Tournaments: Uber Cup, Sudirman Cup, and Thomas Cup.
Ranking Points For Grade-1 Tournaments
Let’s look at the ranking points awarded for players in BWF Grade-1 badminton tournaments [Source].
| Position | Points |
|---|---|
| Winner | 13000 |
| Runner Up | 11000 |
| 3-4 * | 9200 |
| 5-8 | 7200 |
| 9-16 | 5200 |
| 17-32 | 3200 |
| 33-64 | 1300 |
| 65-128 | 650 |
| 129-256 | 260 |
| 257-512 | 130 |
| 513-1024 | 65 |
* Olympic third-place winner will get 10100 points. The fourth-place winner will get 9200 points.
Final Thoughts
All these major tournaments are well recognized across the World. They provide exquisite exposure and experience for players to play against different players across the World. Moreover, they help to improve the World rankings significantly.
It is a dream of almost all players to win awards in these tournaments. The tournaments provide a great platform for players to play for their country and make the nation proud.
I hope this article was helpful to you. I would appreciate it if you’d be willing to share it.
Do you know how badminton as a sport evolved over the years? Check out the article on The History Of Badminton.
Thanks for reading.