Southeast Asia Badminton: Community & Growth

These are the BWF World Tour Finals – the “final tournament” of the World Badminton Federation (BWF).

The SEA Games are now just an afterthought.

In the badminton world, the BWF World Tour Finals (established in 2018) is comparable in prestige to the Olympic Games. It is the most prestigious title of the year, one that the best players in the world strive for. Just like every year, the 2025 World Tour Finals brings together the 8 strongest players/pairs in 5 categories: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The 16 best singles players and 48 best doubles players in the world will participate in this tournament.

A total of 64 players will participate in the World Tour Finals 2025 from December 17 to 20 in Hangzhou, China. The Badminton Federation (BWF) stipulates that each country may send a maximum of two players/pairs to one event. Nevertheless, badminton is strongly represented in Southeast Asia. Thailand has five players, Indonesia eight and Malaysia even ten – the country with the most representation after China.

It is well known in the elite sports world that Southeast Asian countries excel in badminton. However, the badminton world was surprised when the BWF (Badminton World Federation) revealed that no less than 36% of the tournaments come from Southeast Asia. This means that more than a third of today’s best badminton players come from three countries: Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Also because of the World Tour Finals, the badminton teams of these three countries participate in the SEA Games only with a “training mentality”. Kunlavut Vitidsarn, the Thai player currently ranked third in the world, will only participate in the team portion of the SEA Games in his own country. Indonesia is leaving its strongest male players at home ahead of the 2025 World Tour Finals in Hangzhou.

It’s sad for Vietnamese badminton.

Although they did not win the championship, the badminton teams from Southeast Asia still had a memorable tournament in China. Both Thai singles players, Kunlavut Vitidsarn (men) and Ratchanok Intanon (women), reached the semi-finals.

Kunlavut in particular made a strong impression by beating Anders Antonsen, the Danish player currently ranked second in the world. Intanon impressed in the women’s event by beating Han Yue from China.

Meanwhile, Indonesian and Malaysian players excelled in the doubles matches. Indonesian duo Gutama and Isfahani reached the semi-finals in the men’s doubles, Malaysian duo Tan and Muralitharan reached the semi-finals in women’s doubles, and Malaysian duo Jie and Wei also reached the semi-finals in mixed doubles.

There are numerous signs of world-class badminton in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. As Western countries increasingly invest in badminton, the smaller, lighter players from Southeast Asia are managing to maintain their unique position in the world’s top 10 in every category. And this is clearly something the Vietnamese sports world can learn from.

Badminton is not only a well-known Olympic sport or a professional sport with increasing commercial value. It is a sport deeply entrenched in education and the overall physical fitness movement. Although there are no clear statistics on the number of badminton players, many people in Vietnam have held a long-handled badminton racket.

It is truly unfortunate that despite the widespread development of badminton in Vietnam, the Vietnamese people can only see players from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia participating in top tournaments. And when these players then “ignore” the SEA Games, the gold medal remains out of reach for the Vietnamese.