Source: Sipa USA / SOPA Images
[Saba Sports News] After the US Open organizers announced an extension of this year’s tournament to 15 days, Danish badminton star Viktor Axelsen praised the decision on social media and called on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to extend the All England Open and other Super 1000 events to 10 days. He believes this would provide athletes with an additional 1-2 days for rest, allowing them to participate in more promotional activities and giving media and fans more opportunities to interact with players. Currently, BWF events typically run from Tuesday to Sunday, spanning 6 days, with various levels of international events scheduled almost every week, resulting in a very tight annual schedule. Even before Axelsen made this suggestion, many players had called for extended event duration for better athlete recovery. From my perspective, extending the event duration would increase costs for venues, referees, broadcasting equipment, etc.; moreover, badminton events currently lack sponsors, which is also a significant issue.