KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have submitted a preliminary list of 24 shuttlers for two Asian Tour tournaments scheduled to be held in Bangkok, Thailand in January 2021.
BAM coaching director Wong Choong Hann said BAM are still awaiting confirmation from the Badminton World Confederation (BWF) on the national players who are eligible to feature in the Yonex Thailand Open (January 12-17) and Toyota Thailand Open (January19-24).
Both tournaments offer total prize money of US$1 million (RM4.062 million) respectively.
“We do not know how many of our shuttlers are eligible to compete in the tournaments as the BWF need to check if they are qualified to play or not based on their current world rankings,” he told Bernama recently.
Meanwhile, Choong Hann is confident that a few national shuttlers will qualify for the season-ending 2020 BWF World Tour Finals set to be held in Bangkok from January 27 to 31. The Finals offer overall prize money of US$1.5 million (RM6.092 million).
Only the top eight shuttlers from the five categories in the Road to Bangkok rankings will be eligible to feature in the tournament.
“I think we have a chance to qualify for the men’s singles and doubles as well as the mixed doubles based on their current performance,” said Choong Hann.
Yesterday, the BWF released a statement saying that the full list of qualifiers for the World Tour Finals would be confirmed at the conclusion of the Toyota Thailand Open.
The rankings would be based on these qualifying tournaments: Syed Modi International Badminton Championships 2019; Malaysia Masters 2020; Indonesia Masters 2020; Thailand Masters 2020; Spain Masters 2020, All-England 2020; Denmark Open 2020; Yonex Thailand Open 2021; and Toyota Thailand Open 2021.
BWF also said that it was mandatory for shuttlers to compete in both Thailand Opens to be eligible to qualify for the World Tour Finals. — Bernama
