The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has announced 25 new tournaments for the 2021 calendar. Among the 25 tournaments, 17 are Olympic qualification tournaments.
The BWF on their official website also stated the calculation of the next BWF World Rankings list would be announced on Tuesday 2 February 2021.
The Olympic qualification period will end 16 May and a new Race to Tokyo Rankings will be published on 18 May. The qualification and seeding for the Tokyo Olympics will be based on these rankings.
Thomas Lund, BWF General Secretary, said that the focus had been to establish cluster tournaments where it was possible and similar to the planned tournaments in Thailand.
“The Covid-19 situation continues to provide a challenging environment in which to run international tournaments, and although the hope is that the COVID-19 vaccine may in time create a world with less restrictions, BWF expects that the pandemic will still influence tournament hosting throughout the whole of 2021.”
The three tournaments in Thailand are not Olympic qualification tournaments. The first Olympic qualifier is the YONEX Swiss Open set for 2–7 March in Basel. The last Olympic qualifier is the India Open set for 11-16 May in New Delhi.
Super 500 tournaments like Malaysia Masters (6-11 April) and Indonesia Masters (1-6 June) and Super 1000 tournaments like the All England (17-21 March) and Indonesia Open (8-13 June) are not Olympic qualifiers.
Here are the Olympic qualifiers.
| NAME | DATE | TOURNAMENT LEVEL |
|---|---|---|
| YONEX Swiss Open | 02-07 Mar | HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300 |
| YONEX German Open | 09-14 Mar | HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300 |
| 56 Portuguese International Championships | 11-14 Mar | International Series |
| LI-NING Czech Open | 18-21 Mar | International Series |
| XXI Giraldilla | 17-21 Mar | Future Series |
| Orleans Masters | 23-28 Mar | BWF Tour Super 100 |
| Polish Open | 25-28 Mar | International Challenge |
| CIPUTRA HANOI – YONEX SUNRISE Vietnam International Challenge | 23-28 Mar | International Challenge |
| Malaysia Open | 31-04 Apr | HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750 |
| YONEX Osaka International Challenge | 31-04 Apr | International Challenge |
| Singapore Open | 13-18 Apr | HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500 |
| Peru International | 21-25 Apr | International Series |
| Victor Croatian International | 22-25 Apr | Future Series |
| Badminton Asia Championships | 27-02 May | Continental Championships |
| European Championships | 27-02 May | Continental Championships |
| XXIV Pan Am Individual Championships | 27-02 May | Continental Championships |
| India Open | 11-16 May | HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500 |