BWF LAUNCHES SUPER SERIES

 

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) launched the Super Series  on 14 December with the first event, the Malaysian Open to be hosted in early January 2007. This 12 tournament series will attract the top 28 players in the world in each discipline, with 4 additional spots being decided in the qualification round.

Each tournament has a prize pool of US$200,000. The year ends with a Masters Super Series Final– a “best of the best” tournament. The Series is made up of the Malaysian and Korean Opens, All England and Swiss Open, Singapore, Indonesian,  China 1 & 2, Japan, Denmark, French and Hong Kong Opens – followed by the Super Series final in December. The Series will be hosted by these countries for 2007, 2008 and 2009.  

Two men’s doubles pairs and our top women’s singles player Chia-Chia Huang (ranked 26 in the world) will compete in the Super Series starting in January 2007. The men’s doubles pairs of Ashley Brehaut /  Aji Sindoro and Ross Smith / Glenn Warfe head to Malaysia on 7 January for a training camp before the Malaysian Open. These players have just returned from Europe with some good results under their belts including Chia-Chi defeating the World Ranked No. 8 player Yao Jie (NED) 21-23, 21-17, 21-14 to reach the semi-finals of the 2006 Big Boss Dutch Open. She also reached the semis of the Scottish International and the quarter finals of the Denmark Open – one of Europe’s toughest.

In other BWF news from its Council Meetings in Kuala Lumpur, 13 - 17 December 2006:

• Ganga Rao was appointed General Manager for BWF to commence in January 2007. Ganga Rao is currently the General Manager of Badminton Association of Malaysia and has about 20 years of experience in the world of badminton.
• France made a bid presentation for the 2010 World championships and was awarded the event;
• The BWF has an expanding staff and has made plans to move the office to accommodate the expansion. The new home will be Stadium Juara, -  the Badminton Association of Malaysia office.
• Tournament Directors will be elected for all major BWF events. These tournament directors will carry out an overall supervisory role.
• The BWF will start coach education programs, and is looking forward to having professionally trained coaches by the year 2008.