{"id":2185,"date":"2025-12-16T06:50:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2025-12-09T07:17:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:17:53","slug":"how-year-end-world-no-1s-have-fared-at-bwf-world-tour-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/how-year-end-world-no-1s-have-fared-at-bwf-world-tour-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"How year-end world No.1s have fared at BWF World Tour Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since its revamp in 2018, the BWF World Tour Finals has served as the ultimate test for badminton players at the end of the year. While year-end World No.1 status reflects consistency across the season, converting that dominance into a WTF title is far from guaranteed.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the 2025 edition in Hangzhou, China, here\u2019s a look back at how they performed at the grand finale.<\/p>\n<h3>Guangzhou 2018<\/h3>\n<p>The inaugural edition delivered unexpected results, as none of the five disciplines saw a year-end World No.1 win the title.<\/p>\n<p>China were the big winners as Shi Yuqi (MS), Li Junhui\/Liu Yuchen (MD) and Wang Yilyu\/Huang Dongping (XD) won their respective categories. India\u2019s P. V. Sindhu (WS) claimed arguably her biggest career title at the time by defeating Nozomi Okuhara, while Misaki Matsutomo\/Ayaka Takahashi (WD) rounded off the winners\u2019 list.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7u3QaRq9k8E?si=o5e1me99f_2dutNX\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Guangzhou 2019<\/h3>\n<p>This season aligned closely with expectations as four disciplines were won by their respective World No.1s: Kento Momota (MS), Chen Yufei (WS), Chen Qingchen\/Jia Yifan (WD) and Zheng Siwei\/Huang Yaqiong (XD).<\/p>\n<p>Only men\u2019s doubles bucked the trend, with world number two Mohammad Ahsan\/Hendra Setiawan clinching the title.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lHZ3E9wSPNk?si=TGXUEI1tABhXqxoC\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Bangkok 2020<\/h3>\n<p>The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted global badminton, resulting in ranking freezes, restricted travel and unusual tournament conditions. While year-end rankings were distorted, Tai Tzu Ying, the official World No.1 in WS, was the only top-ranked player to navigate past the Bangkok bubble challenge.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/88GsdGu8NhE?si=0gY5xR-CIKAEgllx\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Bali 2021<\/h3>\n<p>Although the sport began inching back toward normality, the lingering effects of the pandemic were still evident. Only Viktor Axelsen (MS) and Dechapol Puavaranukroh\/Sapsiree Taerattanachai (XD) succeeded in converting their top rankings into Finals victories.<\/p>\n<p>Rising star An Se-young (WS) captured her first WTF crown, while Takuro Hoki\/Yugo Kobayashi (MD) and Kim So-yeong\/Kong Hee-yong (WD) triumphed in the doubles categories.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-oWtExAdq4Q?si=nwJRrWkyi2TLhkNp\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Bangkok 2022<\/h3>\n<p>In the first fully normalised Finals since the pandemic, year-end No.1s shone brightly. Axelsen (MS), Akane Yamaguchi (WS), Chen\/Jia (WD) and Zheng Siwei\/Huang Yaqiong (XD) swept their respective categories, underlining their dominance throughout the season.<\/p>\n<p>The only exception was men\u2019s doubles, where Liu Yuchen\/Ou Xuanyi (MD) stunned top seeds Fajar Alfian\/Muhammad Rian Ardianto in the semi-finals en route to the title.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BnHwW3a3Alw?si=RZiRYjXpYj_VWk3C\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Hangzhou 2023<\/h3>\n<p>Returning to China for the first time since 2019, the season finale produced three titles for year-end No.1s: Viktor Axelsen (MS), Chen Qingchen\/Jia Yifan (WD) and Zheng Siwei\/Huang Yaqiong (XD).<\/p>\n<p>Women\u2019s singles and men\u2019s doubles went the other way, with Tai Tzu Ying (WS) and Kang Min-hyuk\/Seo Seung-jae (MD) overcoming higher-ranked opponents to lift their respective trophies.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EzwXE6m0f1s?si=we0UJg3ONBnWav5O\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Hangzhou 2024<\/h3>\n<p>At the seventh time of asking, the men\u2019s doubles event finally saw its year-end No.1 emerge victorious when Kim Astrup\/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (MD) defeated Goh Sze Fei\/Nur Izzuddin in the final. The only other world No.1 to win was Shi (MS), who secured his second WTF title by beating Anders Antonsen.<\/p>\n<p>Baek Ha-na\/Lee So-hee (WD) and Wang Zhi Yi (WS)) continued their late-season surges, while Zheng\/Huang (XD) dominated mixed doubles yet again despite no longer occupying the top spot.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IYcU1vTISkY?si=CeDWlPCNxjUFVawj\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since its revamp in 2018, the BWF World Tour Finals has served as the ultimate test for badminton players at the end of the year. While year-end World No.1 status reflects consistency across the season, converting that dominance into a WTF title is far from guaranteed. Ahead of the 2025 edition in Hangzhou, China, here\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/how-year-end-world-no-1s-have-fared-at-bwf-world-tour-finals\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How year-end world No.1s have fared at BWF World Tour Finals<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,5],"tags":[299,225],"class_list":["post-2185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-popular","category-top-stories","tag-badminton-en","tag-bwf-world-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2185"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2192,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions\/2192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spotvnow.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}