When was the last time there were no Indian players in BWF World Tour Finals?

The participants of the BWF World Tour Finals were recently announced by the global governing body of badminton - Badminton World Federation. Surprisingly, the Indian shuttlers couldn't make the cut for the lucrative tournament, which is also the year-end event.

India's last missed participation was in the 2010 edition when the tournament was called the BWF Super Series. Since then, either Olympic medalist Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, or former World No.1 Kidambi Srikanth have represented India in the BWF Super Series or the restructured BWF World Tour Finals (since 2018).

Two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu, who is currently rehabilitating from her injury, saw a sloppy season this year. Her inconsistency and bowing out from first-rounds dropped the former World No.2 out of the top 10 rankings in April this year.

India's top-ranked men's shuttler HS Prannoy is currently ranked eighth in the BWF rankings and 12th in the BWF World Tour rankings. He won a bronze medal at the Badminton World Championship in Denmark.

The most shocking piece of news for the Indian supporters was that the star men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty failed to meet the entry standards for the season-ending tournament.

Despite bagging three BWF titles and climbing to a career-best ranking of World No.1, the duo won't be seen in action in Hangzhou this month. At the cut-off period, which is November 21, Satwik and Chirag were placed 13th accumulating 69,240 points, though they were fifth in the world rankings at that point.

The criteria to qualify considers the 14 best tournaments and hence the current World No.2 pair fell short as they exited in the first round four times and the same count in the second round.

Which players qualify for the BWF World Tour Finals?

The BWF World Tour finals is a prestigious tournament for all the top-ranked world shuttlers in five different categories - men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles.

The qualification criteria for this extravaganza event is based on ranking points available at different levels such as Super 1000, Super 750, and Super 500 events.

The top seven shuttlers from each category along with the winner of the latest Badminton World Championship in the respective event make way to the BWF World Tour Finals. The BWF China Masters was the last qualification event for the year-ender.