BAM replies to Aaron Chia's complaint about Malaysia Open's dates

KUALA LUMPUR: BAM said today it did submit an official proposal to the Badminton World Federation (BWF) to revise the dates of the Malaysia Open, with the intention that the Super 1000 event should not be the curtain-raiser for the World Tour calendar.

BAM secretary-general Datuk Kenny Goh said the proposal was to shift the Malaysia Open to the middle of the year (around May) while the Malaysia Masters be brought forward to January.

National doubles ace Aaron Chia has called for the rescheduling of the Malaysia Open as the tournament has been taking a physical toll on the top players.

The matter, said Kenny, was already raised with BWF in May last year, together with BAM's bid to retain the Malaysia Open's Super 1000 status for the next four-year cycle beginning in 2027.

"BAM submitted a proposal to reschedule two of our tournaments along with the bid to maintain the Super 1000 status for the Malaysia Open," said Kenny today.

"However, everything depends on BWF's approval. The current cycle cannot be changed as the calendar is structured in four-year blocks.

"If possible, we do not want to stage a Super 1000 tournament at the start of the year. That is also among the requests from our sponsors."

Aaron claimed that many top players have just concluded a long season, including competing at the World Tour Finals in mid-December, making recovery more difficult.

He also suggested that the season should begin with lower-tier tournaments such as Super 100 or Super 500 events before moving on to major tournaments like the Super 1000.