All England Badminton Championships: Oldest and Most Prestigious Badminton Tournament

The All England Badminton Championships is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious badminton tournaments.

The All-England is held annually in England.

Interesting Facts about the Tournament

When badminton was first played, England was the first country to grow the sport. The first ever badminton open championships was held in 1899 at Guildford, England.

The All-England Badminton Open developed after that tournament. This makes the All-England one of the oldest badminton open tournaments in the world.

Winning an All England title is considered to be a great success for any professional player.

This is due to the credibility and reputation of the tournament. It’s recognised by many worldwide.

Also, the All-England was once considered to be the highest level tournament before the IBF (International Badminton Federation; now called Badminton World Federation) launched Badminton World Championships in 1977.

At that time, badminton was not yet an Olympic Games event. So all England tournament can be seen as an Olympic equivalent badminton tournament. Winning an All England title at that time is equivalent to winning an Olympics gold medal today.

However, the All England tournament is no longer the highest level badminton tournament. Today, the world of badminton gives more credit to winners of the Olympic Games, Badminton World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Thomas Cup.

Today, the All England Badminton Championships is an OSIM BWF World Super Series PREMIER event, which is the highest level of all badminton tournaments organised by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

Every year, the best badminton players from around the globe will battle for the All England title. It is certainly not the tournament prize money that attracted these world class players. It is the fame and
recognition they get from winning the All England Championships title.

Since 1984, Yonex has agreed to become the title sponsor for this prestigious annual badminton tournament. Therefore, this tournament is often referred to as the Yonex All England Badminton Championships.

Brief History

The following are some historical events that happened throughout the yearly All England Badminton Open.

• 1899: The first All England Badminton Championships was hosted.
• The annual tournament did not run for 2 long periods; due to World War 1 and World War 2.
• Before 1977: The All England Championships was considered to be the highest level tournament in the world.
• 1984: The tournament was officially sponsored by Yonex. The official title of the tournament became “Yonex All England”.
• 2007: BWF introduced the Super Series badminton events and the Yonex All England became part of it.
• 2011: The Yonex All England was upgraded to become a Super Series Premier event.

Recent Events at the Yonex All England

The Yonex All England always brings the best badminton players together to fight for its prestigious annual title.

2013: MS final featured Lee Chong Wei and China’s next star, Chen Long.

We seldom see the 2 best players in the world, Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan, meet in competitions. But you would expect to see them in big tournaments. The All-England Open was one of them!

2012: MS final match featured the current world no.1 Lee Chong Wei against former World and Olympic champion, Lin Dan.

They also met in 2011.

In 2010, it was also Lee Chong Wei in the final, but his opponent was the young Kenichi Tago. It was during this match that Kenichi made a name for himself.

Before 2010, Kenichi Tago was not very well known. However, this young talent from Japan pressured Chong Wei into a tight rubber game.

The Yonex All England Final is only reserved for the BEST players. Kenichi was not ranked in the top 10 players in 2010, but he proved his worth by making his way to the finals. It was this very competition that
introduced us to the world class potential the young Japanese possessed.

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