KUALA LUMPUR: Badminton fans can look forward to changes in the sport next year.
It is learned that the Badminton World Federation (BWF) are currently in the process of revamping the tournament calendar for the next cycle from 2027 to 2030.
Among the changes expected are the re-arrangement of tournaments such as the Malaysian Open and Malaysian Masters.
The Super 1000 home Open have been the year’s curtain raiser from 2023 to 2026 while the Super 500 home Masters falls in May.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) secretary Kenny Goh though confirmed that the national body have submitted a request to BWF to change the dates of the Malaysian Open from January to April or May.
“We have requested that the Malaysian Open be shifted from the start of the year to April or May from 2027 to 2030,” said Kenny.
“We are waiting for BWF’s approval. Hopefully, they agree to our request.”
BAM’s response comes after men’s doubles shuttler Aaron Chia raised the suggestion to shift the prestigious event to later in the year due to players’ fatigue after a long season.
Aaron had suggested to start the year with a Super 300 or Super 100 competition.
Other changes anticipated are more number of days for Super 1000 events and 15-points scoring system in matches to replace the current 21-points format.
BWF earlier proposed to lengthen the Super 1000 tournaments to 11 days compared to the current six days.
The world governing body are expected to make an announcement on potential changes later this month.
