The Korea Open is a professional badminton tournament that has been played since 1991. It is now A Super 500 event on the Badminton World Federation’s circuit, the tournament has been played in multiple cities including Seoul, Jeju City, Yeosu, Incheon, Chungju, Seongnam, Suncheon, and Mokpo.
The tournament is organized by the Korea Badminton Association along with the Badminton World Federation. It features five categories of tournaments that are played as men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. All events are played in the single elimination bracket format. The draw size for each category of event is 32.
Players enter the event based on their world ranking which decides their qualification. A match is played by the traditional scoring format of best of three sets. A set is won when a player is first to win 21 points with a difference of two points. When the score reaches 20 points apiece, then the set is won by the player who inches to a distinct lead of two points. A rally scoring format is used.
The champions of each event receive 9200 points, whereas the runners-up get 7800 points. 6420 and 5040 ranking points are earned by the semifinalists and quarterfinalists respectively. As of 2024, the tournament has a prize purse of US $420,000. The singles champions are rewarded with $31,500 whereas the doubles champions earn $33,180 (split between the two players).
Danish player Pete Gade holds the record for winning a record four men’s singles title at the event. South Korea’s Bang Soo-hyun has won a record three women’s singles titles. Ha Tae-Kwon and Lee Yong-dae have been a part of a record of four champion men’s doubles teams. The women’s doubles record title holders are Chung So-young and Yang Wei, with four trophy finishes each. Ra Kyung-Min has been the most successful player in mixed doubles, having won seven titles. Six of these were won with Kim Dong-moon in succession from 1999 to 2004.
China has produced a record 52 champions across all categories. South Korea is the next best side, with 48 players winning in their home event.
