China to host 2011 Super Series Finals

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced today that the annual BWF World Super Series Finals would be held in the southern Chinese city of Liuzhou, in Guangxi Province.  For the second year in a row, the host city has been named early and it appears that the now annual event – which got off to a shaky start with the intended inaugural event in 2007 being cancelled – is indeed here to stay.  After the first two editions were hosted by Malaysia, Taipei welcomed the 2010 Super Series’ top performers in January of this year but the 2011 event will be held within the 2011 calendar year, from December 14th to 18th.

For China, this extends an impressive string of badminton hosting duties.  In addition to putting on three of the past four Sudirman Cup competitions and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, there were, of course, the Guangzhou Asian Games, the 2011 Badminton Asia Championships, and the just concluded Summer Universiade.  All of these are in addition to the two regular events in the OSIM Super Series, the last of which, the 2011 Li Ning China Open Premier Super Series – will finish in Shanghai a mere 17 days prior to the opening serve in Liuzhou.

The top eight players in each of the five disciplines will qualify for the Finals.  With the advent this year of compulsory attendance by top players at both the Premier Super Series events and the Super Series Finals, as well as the addition of ranking points that can count toward Olympic qualification, we can be sure that the Finals this year will once again be well-attended by badminton’s top players, as well as by eager fans in the world’s top badminton-playing nation.

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