(Xports News Reporter Kim Hwan) The schedule and location for the 2026 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Korea Open (Super 500) have been confirmed.
Originally, the Korea Open was scheduled to be held in September like last year, but due to the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games schedule to be held from mid-September, it was postponed to November, and BWF recently approved and announced it. The venue for the competition is Yeosu, Jeollanam-do.
Compared to last year’s competition held in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, both the location and schedule have changed.
According to the BWF website on the 28th, the 2026 BWF Korea Open will be held in Yeosu, Jeollanam-do from November 3 to 8. The Korea Open is the largest international competition hosted by BWF held in Korea. This is a Super 500 level competition, and the total prize money is $500,000 (about 715 million won).
Instead, the Korea Masters (Super 300) schedule, which was scheduled for November, was pushed back to September instead of November. The Korea Masters will be held in Gwangju Metropolitan City.
The Korea Open is expected to feature Korea’s leading badminton stars, including Ahn Se-young (women’s singles) and Seo Seung-jae and Kim Won-ho (men’s doubles). The Korea Masters is likely to feature representative 1.5-level players who need world ranking points.
Ahn Se-young succeeded in winning 11 gold medals last year, tying the record for the most wins in a single season and the record for the highest winning percentage (94.8%), but she ended up in runner-up at the Korea Open at home, losing 0-2 to Akane Yamaguchi (Japan, world No. 4).
Coincidentally, after losing to Yamaguchi at the Korea Open, Ahn Se-young went on a 30-game winning streak (including a semifinal win over Chen Yu-fei at the Malaysian Open), including the final of the India Open (Super 750). Last year’s Korea Open was Ahn Se-young’s last real loss.
After the Korea Open, Ahn Se-young continued her success by winning trophies at the Denmark Open and French Open (Super 750) in October, the Australian Open (Super 500) in November, the BWF China Hangzhou World Tour Finals in December, the Malaysia Open (Super 1000) held earlier this month, and the Indian Open.
In the case of singles, players ranked 1st to 15th in the world, such as Ahn Se-young, are required to attend at least two of the nine Super 500 tournaments held annually. Korean players have a high tendency to participate in the Kumamoto Masters in Japan and the Australian Open along with the Korea Open. Chinese players do not often come to the Korea Open, but instead go to the Hong Kong Open.
Photo = Yonhap News / BWF
Reporter Kim Hwan hwankim14@xportsnews.com
