It's clearly evident that the SS tournament held in India for the second year in the row suffered poor attendance rate in the venue. Despite having admissions made free to spectators, it didn't do much to help the cause of promoting badminton in the country. On a serious note, it's time for BWF to remove India from the Super Series circuit and downgrade it to GP level. Countries like Germany, Thailand, Australia or even Vietnam can expect to draw bigger crowd than India.....Personally, a petition should be delivered to BWF to downgrade India and in exchange promote Australian Open to SS status since they have done an amazing job in the tournament organisation and marketing campaign... The size of the crowd speaks for itself to say the least..Furthermore, we have seen a lot of walkovers from top players throughout the tournament...that shows how much they don't really appreciate India as a SS tournament..
We need India! Yes, the attendance was terrible this year... [most probably due to Sania's early exit]... But we need India as a future badminton powerhouse...
The walkover is a difficult issue. Although great hype was made about it being the last SS tournament giving qualifying points, that clearly is not a huge factor in attendance by the players. Obviously, if you have already qualified for the olympics at the end of a tiring year on the tour, take a rest. Once you know you've secured your ranking in the tournament, concede a walkover. If you haven't qualified, why go for the one trip? (prize money won't cover travelling expenses) If you say that crowd attendance should be the main factor in SS status, then smaller places like HK and Singapore should definitely keep SS status and China Masters should be kept. For any country where the games is developing, crowd attendance will lag. Certainly, I would not say that India should be removed from SS status just yet. Look at how many international players they have on the scene. That shows the game is developing well.
Aside from the very obvious removal of China Masters, I will personally urge BWF people for the removal of Singapore SS and Hong Kong SS from the SS list! [sorry Singaporeans and HongKong-ers] Singapore Gold GP and Hong Kong Gold GP sounds very nice... Fosters Australia Open SS, Gazprom Russia Open SS,and Chevron US Open SS sounds excellent!!! Don't worry about the Australian players and American players not doing well... they're used to it in tennis... Australians have not seen an Australian MS winner since 1976 and an Australian WS winner since 1978 in the Australian Open... Americans have not seen an American MS winner since 2003 and since 2002, only Serena Williams can win once at the US Open...
Well, HK and Singaporean fit that criteria quite nicely with the successes they have had All problems will be felled with an increase in numbers of SS tournaments. Obviously tennis has a framework but badminton doesn't need to follow it exactly does it? If they really want to follow that format so closely, then get rid of mens doubles, womens doubles and mixed doubles.
PRIZE is pretty low compared to Malaysia SS tournament. only $7600 for runner up place. If that's the case, then M'sia SS should be elevated to premier event if India maintain its SS status.
Can i know for this tournament, those matches umpire and service judge is assigned by India or by BWF? I can say it is very poor and ridiculous decision. During the qf xd match between sudket/saralee against mas chan/goh, the service judge is a Thai. I thought that's not supposed to happen?? Who is responsible for this.
Men, don't BWF know this SIMPLY rule? Not to have officials who is the same nation as the player/pair while officiating a match... Bwf totally screwed up...