Southeast Asia covers the world badminton 'final', Vietnamese people feel sad

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced that it has selected all the faces to participate in the BWF World Tour Finals - the annual final tournament of badminton.

The pride of Thailand's badminton village, badminton player Kunlavut Vitidsarn - Photo: NST

In the badminton world, the BWF World Tour Finals (established in 2018) is on par with the Olympics in terms of prestige, considered the "final of the year", the most prestigious title of the year that the world's strongest players aim for.

As every year, the 2025 World Tour Finals will feature the top 8 players/pairs in 5 categories: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles. Last weekend, BWF selected the top 64 players for these 5 categories, including 16 singles players and 48 doubles players.

Notable is the coverage of Southeast Asian players, with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia being prominent.

In the men's singles, Thailand has Kunlavut Vitidsarn - who is currently ranked 3rd in the world, and is the first men's singles player to qualify for the 2025 World Tour Finals.

In the women's singles, Thailand has two players, Pornpawee Chochuwong and Ratchanok Intanon.

In the mixed doubles category, they also contributed a pair: Dechapol Puavaranukroh - Supissara Paewsampran. Thus, Thailand has a total of 5 players participating in the World Tour Finals, spanning 3 categories.

Malaysia's powerful Chia - Yik - Photo: STADIUM ASTRO

But among the three badminton powers in Southeast Asia, Thailand is the country that contributes the fewest players. Malaysia contributes 10 players, while Indonesia has 8 players.

Only China (14 players) has a higher "coverage" level than Malaysia. Although it does not have any representatives in the singles events, Malaysia has 5 pairs spread across 3 doubles events.

Among them, their pair Aaron Chia - Soh Wooi Yik (men's doubles) and Pearly Tan - Muralitharan (women's doubles) are predicted to be the top championship candidates.

Putra Wardani plays better and better - Photo: BWF

With 8 players, Indonesia is the Southeast Asian country with the most even coverage at the World Tour Finals, spanning 4 events (except women's doubles).

In men's singles, Indonesia has Jonatan Christie currently ranked 4th in the world, and in women's singles, they have the explosive young talent Putri Kusuma Wardani.

Never having won a SEA Games medal in her career, Wardani exploded in 2025 when she won a world bronze medal and reached the finals of two other major tournaments.

Seeing neighboring countries "aggressively" entering the year's finals with the goal of winning many events, Vietnamese fans can't help but feel sad.

Compared to Thailand, Indonesia or Malaysia, Vietnam is not inferior in badminton. But if comparing the level and real depth, the Vietnamese badminton village cannot compare to neighboring countries.

This year's BWF World Tour Finals will take place from December 17 to 21 in Hangzhou, China. This is also the third consecutive year that this city has hosted the annual finals of the world badminton village.

This year's prize money is also the highest in history, with a total prize of up to 3 million USD, more than half a million USD compared to last year's prize.

In each event, 8 players or 8 pairs of players will be divided into 2 groups, playing a round robin to select 4 teams for the semi-finals.

In the past, Thailand had 2 championships in this prestigious arena, and Indonesia had 1.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dong-nam-a-phu-song-chung-ket-cau-long-the-gioi-nguoi-viet-chanh-long-20251123220823912.htm