How do players qualify for BWF World Tour Finals?

Top eight rankings and country quotas decide final lineup for the BWF World Tour Finals.

The BWF World Tour Finals is badminton’s most prestigious year-end tournament, featuring the top athletes throughout the season. The qualification process is comprehensive and designed to ensure that only the most consistent players earn their spots in this coveted championship. This year, Olympic Champions are awarded direct quota in the finals.

Ranking System and Player Limits

The primary pathway to qualification is through the BWF World Tour rankings, with the top eight players or pairs in each category securing their places in the finals. However, to maintain competitive balance and prevent any single country from dominating the event, there’s a crucial restriction: no more than two players or pairs from the same nation can qualify in each category.

Tournament Structure

The World Tour operates on a tiered system of tournaments, each offering different levels of ranking points and prize money. These tournaments are organized into five distinct levels:

• Level 1: World Tour Finals
• Level 2: Super 1000 (4 tournaments)
• Level 3: Super 750 (6 tournaments)
• Level 4: Super 500 (9 tournaments)
• Level 5: Super 300 (11 tournaments)

Players accumulate points based on their performances in these tournaments throughout the season. The higher the tournament level, the more points are available to be earned, making success in Super 1000 and Super 750 events particularly valuable for qualification prospects.

Also Read: Top five players with most appearances in BWF World Tour Finals

The World Tour Rankings have a unique calculation method. Players can count their best 14 tournament results towards their ranking total. However, there’s a limitation: only three results from Super 100 tournaments can be included in this calculation.

In cases where players are tied in the rankings, the BWF has established a clear tiebreaker system. The selection will be based on two main factors:

1. The number of BWF World Tour tournaments played
2. The number of points collected in BWF World Tour tournaments from July 1st onwards

Olympic Champions’ Privilege

The 2024 edition brings a significant change from previous years. While the 2023 tournament granted automatic qualification to reigning world champions, this year’s edition extends this privilege to current Olympic champions instead. This means several prestigious names have already secured their spots:

• Viktor Axelsen in men’s singles
• Lee Yang/Wang Chi-lin in men’s doubles
• Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan in women’s doubles
• Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong in mixed doubles

These Olympic champions will participate in the finals regardless of their current ranking position, provided they meet the basic eligibility requirements. Women’s singles Olympic Champion An Se-young also has this privilege, but she might very well have qualified based on her World Tour ranking.

However, as per the history of the tournament, the World Championships and Olympic Champions quota is not always applicable. In regular years when there are no WC or Olympics, the rankings are solely based on the World Tour rankings.

Qualification Period

The road to the 2024 Finals spans an extensive period, including tournaments from weeks 2-47 in 2024, plus three additional tournaments from weeks 48-50 in 2023. This extended qualification window ensures that players must demonstrate consistent excellence over a significant period to earn their place.

The culmination of this rigorous qualification process will be witnessed in Hangzhou from December 11-15, 2024, where the sport’s finest athletes will compete for one of badminton’s most prestigious titles.

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