In previous years, the finals were known as the BWF Super Series Finals. Last year, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo nailed the men’s doubles title.

This year, world No. 1 pair Marcus and Kevin are to return to the finals, along with another men’s pair, Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu in women’s doubles, Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in mixed doubles and Tommy Sugiarto and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in men’s singles.

“We’re really happy to reach the world tour finals, because we were fighting against other good players, including from Indonesia, to make the cut. I hope we can give our best in the finals,” said Ahsan as quoted by badmintonindonesia.org.

The shuttlers reached the finals after collecting points throughout the year, which were calculated from the Thailand Masters in January to the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships in India this week.

The finals offer 12,000 points and a total of US$1.5 million in prize money for winners. In the lower level BWF World Tour Super 1000 category, Indonesia Open offers the second highest amount of prize money, $1.25 million, followed by the All England Open and China Open, each of which offer $1 million in cash rewards.

Apart from the prize money, collecting points from tournaments is essential for shuttlers to level up in world rankings. (nkn)