Thai tennis player Kunlavut is taking a break from the Southeast Asian Games to concentrate on the World Tour final – Photo: SIAM
In the world of badminton, the BWF World Tour Finals (since 2018) enjoy as much prestige as the Olympic Games, are considered the “finals of the year” and are the most prestigious title that the strongest players in the world strive for.
As in previous years, the 2025 World Tour Finals will bring together the eight strongest players/pairs in five categories: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed. The 16 best singles players and 48 best doubles players in the world will take part in this tournament.
Badminton is considered a popular sport and is also the only professional sport in which Southeast Asians can reach world-class levels.
The World Tour Finals prove this impressively. This year, 5 players from Thailand, 8 from Indonesia and even 10 from Malaysia will take part in the 2025 World Tour Finals.
Most leading sports newspapers in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia have dedicated sections for badminton, which attracts similar interest to football.
When the World Tour finals took place, the event immediately caused a huge stir among the people of these three countries.
This was clearly evident in their preparation for the Southeast Asian Games. The Indonesian team left all of its strong male players at home, resting them for the World Tour finals rather than the Southeast Asian Games. Even Kunlavut – number 3 in the world rankings from Thailand – decided not to take part in the individual tournament at the Southeast Asian Games in their own country.
Malaysia boasts some extremely strong pairs – Photo: STADIUM ASTRO
At the World Tour Finals, Kunlavut is expected to play for the championship. He is in the same group as Antonsen (Denmark), Popov (France) and Christie (Indonesia). The other group consists of Shi Yuqi, Li Shifeng, Chou Tien-Chen and Naraoka.
In the women’s singles, the Indonesian Putri Wardani is still too young to compete against An Se Young and her Chinese competitors. The Indonesian fans are therefore hoping for a miracle in the men’s doubles, as two Indonesian doubles pairs are taking part in the tournament.
Likewise, all 10 Malaysian players taking part in the tournament are competing in doubles and promise to be strong contenders for at least one title.
This year’s BWF World Tour Finals will take place from December 17th to 21st in Hangzhou, China. This means that the city will host the Badminton World Championships for the third time in a row.
This year’s prize money is also the highest in history: the total prize pool is $3 million, more than half a million dollars more than last year.
In each tournament, 8 players or 8 pairs of players are divided into 2 groups, which compete against each other in a round-robin system to determine 4 teams for the semi-finals.
In the past, Thailand has won two titles at this prestigious tournament, while Indonesia has won one.
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