Bangkok Beckons: January Like No Other
Oftentimes, the first month of a year marks the beginning of a brand-new badminton programme, very rarely it is the hello to a goodbye to a season.
· PREM KUMAR
In fact, never before has a season wrapped up emphatically at the start of the year. In recent times, only in 2011 the concluding event of the previous term – the BWF Superseries Finals – spilled into January to accommodate a busy schedule stretched by the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
The Coronavirus, however, has managed to turn 2020 into the year of the plague and as a result, proceedings have been altered and for the first time in badminton history, this month will witness a three-competition blockbuster climax to an unprecedented campaign.
A strange HSBC BWF World Tour 2020 season will thus culminate in exciting fashion with the beautiful city of Bangkok providing the backdrop to the premier tournaments, starting with the Super 1000 YONEX Thailand Open (12-17 January).