The All England Open Badminton Championships is the world's oldest

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

tournament, held annually in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. With the introduction of the BWF's latest grading system, it was given

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status in 2007, upgraded to Super Series Premier status in 2011. The world's first open tournament was held in the English town of

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in 1898, the success of which paved the way for the All England's inaugural edition, which was held at

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's Horticultural Halls in 1899. Although the inaugural edition consisted of just the doubles format, the singles were introduced from the second edition onward. It was eventually considered – especially after the first

Thomas Cup The Thomas Cup, sometimes called the World Men's Team Championships, is an international badminton competition among teams representing member nations of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport's global governing body. The championships h ...

series in 1949 – the unofficial world championship of the sport until 1977, when the

International Badminton Federation The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is the international governing body for the sport of badminton recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was founded in 1934 as the International Badminton Federation (IBF) with nine member ...

launched its official championships. There were two instances when it was halted – from 1915 to 1919 (due to

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) and from 1940 to 1946 (due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Historical venues for the Championships

The tournament has been held at eight venues, and is now played at

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Past winners

Multiple winners

Below is the list of the most successful players in the All England Open Badminton Championships: In the modern era players are less able to compete in multiple disciplines due to the differentiation of required skills and the physical demands of the game. Some men's and women's doubles players are able to compete successfully in mixed doubles. The last player to win in both singles and a doubles discipline was Li Lingwei of China who won women's doubles in 1985 then in women's singles in 1989. Many female badminton players change their surname after marriage. Below are some of the former names or latest names as noted in the table above: : – Judy Devlin later known as Judy Hashman : – Tonny Ahm formerly known as Tonny Olsen : – Ethel Thomson later known as Larcombe : – Margaret Tragett formerly known as Larminie : – Gillian Gilks formerly known as Gillian Perrin and the latest was changed to Gillian Goodwin : – Kirsten Thorndahl also known as Kirsten Granlund : – Ulla Strand formerly known as Ulla Rasmussen : – Kitty McKane later known as Godfree : – Nora Perry formerly known as Nora Gardner : – June Timperley formerly known as June White : – Sue Devlin won her first three titles representing England then the next three representing Ireland : – Susan Whetnall formerly known as Susan Pound : – Etsuko Toganoo formerly known as Etsuko Takenaka : – Iris Rogers formerly known as Iris Cooley : – Margaret Stocks formerly known as Margaret McKane

Performances by nation

References

External links