All England Open Badminton Championships 2024: All you need to know – Dates, Venues, and More
The 2024 BWF year has been filled with numerous surprises. Viktor Axelsen has been suffering to win tournaments while his compatriot Anders Antonsen and China’s Shi Yuqi have emerged as the Dane’s successors.
The most recent BWF tournament, the 2024 French Open ended with Yuqi adding another accolade to his trophy cabinet. On the other side, the women’s division is still being dominated by the top four ranks, which includes big names such as South Korea’s An Se-Young and China’s Chen Yufei. However, Se-Young is slowly creating a huge lead in the Women’s singles rankings.
Nevertheless, with the end of the 2024 French Open, it’s time for the second Super 1000 tournament of the BWF calendar, the All England Open Badminton Championships. The All England Open Badminton Championships is important for the shuttlers as it will play a major role in the 2024 Summer Olympics qualifications.
Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships, all known as All England Open is one of the four Super 1000 events in a BWF calendar year. Interestingly, the Super 1000 tournament is also the oldest badminton competition on the World Tour as its inaugural edition took place in Guildford, West Surrey in 1898.
Before the 1940s, the tournament was dominated only by British Shuttlers. In 1980, Prakash Padukone became the first Indian to win the All-England Open. Moreover, he was also ranked World No. 1 in the same year. After two decades, in 2001, Pullela Gopichand became the second Indian to reach the milestone after Padukone. Since then, no Indian has managed to finish on the podium.
All England Open got the status of Super Series in 2007 and after four years, the All England Open got the Super Series Premier status. Moreover, the competition has always been a Super 1000 tournament on the BWF World Tour. In 2024, the 114th edition of the tournament will be taking place.
Dates
The 2024 edition of the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships will start on March 12, Tuesday with Men’s doubles event. As per the calendar, the initial two rounds of the tournament will be played in the first three days. On March 17, the finals of all the divisions will take place in addition to the accolades ceremony.
Venue
The Super 1000 tournament has taken place in several venues such as Empress Hall, Harringay Arena, and more. From 1957 to 1993, the tournament took place at the Wembley Arena in London.
In 1994, the centre of the tournament was shifted to Birmingham. Since then, the All England Open has been annually taking place at the Utilita Arena Birmingham, which is also known as the National Indoor Arena.
Apart from the Super 1000 tournament, the Utilita Arena is also home to the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. In addition to that, the arena also hosted the artistic and rhythmic gymnastics events for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The Utilita Arena Birmingham also hosted Gymnastics events during the 2022 Commonwealth Games
The main arena at the indoor stadium has a total capacity of 15,800 spectators. On the other side, the secondary arena in the National Indoor Arena can allow a total of 6,825 spectators.
Format Explainer
Like all the major tournaments on the BWF World Tour, the All England Open Badminton Championships is also played in five traditional categories, Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles, and Mixed Doubles. All categories follow a five-round knockout format, which starts from the Round of 32, also called the first round, and ends with the final, which takes place on the last day of the tournament.
As per BWF, the total prize money of the tournament is US$1,300,000. This year, the total prize amount of the tournament has increased by US$50,000. Consequently, all the participants will get a slightly increased sum of money during the upcoming edition.
Points and Prize distribution tally:
| Points Distribution | Prize Money (Singles) | Prize Money (Doubles) | |
| Winner | 12,000 | $91,000 | $96,200 |
| Runner-up | 10,200 | $44,200 | $45,500 |
| Semi-finalist | 8,400 | $18,200 | $18,200 |
| Quarter-finalist | 6,600 | $7,150 | $8,125 |
| Round of 16 | 4,800 | $3,900 | $4,225 |
| Round of 32 | 3,000 | $1,300 | $1,300 |
Star Attractions
India’s Lakshya Sen reached the semi-final of the 2024 French Open
China’s Li Shifeng will be defending his title in Birmingham against the likes of other top seeds. Interestingly, India’s Lakshya Sen defeated the Chinese shuttler in the Round of 16 of the French Open, making the 22-year-old a top unseeded contender for the All-England Open title.
Sen will be accompanied by the likes of HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth, and Priyanshu Rajawat in the men’s singles event. All four Indian shutters have been drawn into different sections as Srikanth will face Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in his first-round fixture. Last year, all Indians failed to get past the second round. Hence, this time, they’ll be looking forward to a podium finish with increased hunger.
On the other hand, PV Sindhu, who gave a gritty performance in the French Open, will face Germany’s Yvonne Li in the first round. However, she’s expected to face top seed An Se-young in the Round of 16. The South Korean is also the defending champion of the All-England Open and has also won the Malasiya and French Open this year. India’s Aakarshi Kashyap will also be present in the women’s singles event.
In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will present India’s participation as the top seeds. The French Open winning duo will face last year’s runner-ups in their first match, Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. Seventh-seed Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto are the defending champions of the men’s doubles event.
Three Indian pairs will be contesting for the ultimate glory in the women’s doubles event, which are Treesa Jolly/ Gayatri Gopichand, Tanisha Crasto/ Ashwini Ponnappa, and Rutaparna Panda/ Swetaparna Panda. Nevertheless, all the Indian pairs are expected to face a relatively difficult draw.