The Australian Open in badminton refers to a Super 500 event on the Badminton World Federation‘s circuit of professional badminton events. It began in 1975, but saw a promotion in its stature not until 1989.
The Australian Open was a part of the Super 300 series between 2018 to 2022. In 2023, the tournament was upgraded to be a part of the Super 500 series of events. The tournament is organized by Badminton Australia in association with the Badminton World Federation.
The tournament features events played in all five disciplines of badminton – men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Each match is played in the best of three sets format. The first player or team to win 21 points with a difference of two wins the set. The draw size of each event is 32 teams or players.
As of 2024, the tournament offers 9200 ranking points to the winner and 7800 points to the runner-up. Semifinalists and quarterfinalists get 6420 and 5040 points respectively. The tournament has a total prize pool of $420,000. Out of this, $31,500 is given to each singles champion and $33,500 is for the champion doubles teams.
Australian players have been the most successful in their home event. 45.5 (.5 representing an Australian doubles player who teamed up with a player from another nation) players from Australia have seen a winning finish across both singles and doubles. China is the best nation, having produced 23 players who lifted the Australian Open title.
Tim He, Rio Suryana, and Andrew Smith have won two titles each in the men’s singles category. Lisa Campbell’s tally of three titles is a record in the women’s singles category. Peter Blackburn has been one half of six men’s doubles pairs who went on to win the title. Rhonda Cator and comaptriot Amanda Hardy have won a record three women’s doubles titles each at their home event. Tim He and Anna Lao won the first three editions in the mixed doubles category and is a record that still stands.
