The China Open or VICTOR China Open is an annual badminton tournament that is held in the People’s Republic of China. It is a part of the BWF World Tour and is only one of the three Super 1000 level tournaments in the tour, the other two being the All England Championships and the Indonesia Open.
China Open had its inception in 1986, and has been held every year since then. It is hosted by the Chinese Badminton Association and is played across different cities each year. However, for the last four years the tournament has been taking place in Fuzhou.
One of the two BWF World Tour tournaments held in China, the tournament has seen legendary Chinese shuttlers like Li Yongbo, Zhao Jianhua, Lin Dan, Zhang Ning, and Zhao Yunlei. The other Chinese tournament in the tour is the China Masters, which is a Super 750 level tournament.
The tournament is sponsored by the Chinese badminton sporting equipment company VICTOR, who acquired the promotion rights only since the 2018 edition. It was previously sponsored by the Tahoe Group Co. Ltd. which primarily engages in the real estate business.
The 2018 China Open is scheduled to begin on 18th September and finish by the 23rd of the same month.
Venue
The 2018 edition of the tournament will be held in the Olympic Sports Centre in Changzhou city, China. The main stadium of the sports complex has a capacity of 38,000 while the gymnasium has a capacity of 6,200.
Prize Money
The China Open has a total prize money of $1,000,000 which is distributed according to the BWF regulations.
Defending Champions
Over the years, the tournament has been dominated by the Chinese players and three of the five categories are going to be defended by the native Chinese shuttlers.
The men’s singles title is held by the Olympic gold medallist Chen Long of China while the women’s singles title is held by Akane Yamaguchi of Japan. The men’s doubles title is held by the Indonesian duo of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo while the women’s doubles title is held by Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan of China. The defending mixed doubles titleholders are also Chinese, Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong.
