The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Monday unveiled a revamped World Tour calendar for the 2027-2030 cycle, under which India’s India Open has retained its Super 750 status, while the Syed Modi International has been downgraded from Super 300 to Super 100, reducing the country’s overall number of events from four to two.
The India Open, staged in New Delhi and upgraded to Super 750 status in 2023, will continue as one of the five Super 750 tournaments globally, despite organisational issues flagged by international players during this year’s edition. It will retain its Grade 2, Level 3 standing in the new cycle.
In contrast, the Syed Modi International, held in Lucknow in memory of Commonwealth Games champion Syed Modi, will drop to Super 100 status from next
year. The tournament had been part of the Super 300 tier since 2018 and was originally introduced as a Grand Prix event in 2009.
India has also lost two Super 100 tournaments from the calendar, Guwahati and Odisha, both of which were introduced in 2023.
Explaining the changes, Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary general Sanjay Mishra said the decision reflected growing global demand to host World Tour events.
“See last time, 32 countries had applied for the world tour tournaments. This time, 56 countries had applied. Now naturally the numbers are limited, so BWF wanted to take the game to new areas,” Mishra said.
Also read: India men, women gear up for Asia Team Championships
“Even China has got just three events. We told BWF that we want to host the events which we have been hosting. But BWF had too many requests and they wanted more countries to host world tour events,” he added.
He said India opted to retain the Syed Modi tournament as its Super 100 event given its legacy. “So since we were getting one Super 100, we thought it is better to have it in Lucknow as Syed Modi International is one of our oldest events,” Mishra said.
Under the new structure, the BWF World Tour will comprise 36 tournaments across six tiers, the World Tour Finals, five Super 1000 events, five Super 750, nine Super 500, eight Super 300 and eight Super 100 tournaments. Super 100 events will be integrated into the main World Tour for the first time.
A key change is the expansion of Super 1000 tournaments from four to five. These elite events will be held across Asia and Europe, featuring 48 singles players through group and knockout stages, with doubles draws of 32 pairs. Each Super 1000 tournament will run for 11 days across two weekends.
The BWF said the annual World Tour prize pool will rise to about USD 26.9 million. “Prize money across categories will increase to USD 2 million for Super 1000 tournaments, USD 1.1 million for Super 750, USD 560,000 for Super 500, USD 290,000 for Super 300 and USD 140,000 for Super 100 events,” it said.
The federation also confirmed that from 2027, the World Championships will adopt a group-stage format followed by knockouts, while the Sudirman Cup and Thomas and Uber Cup Finals will expand to include more teams.
Follow us
