The 2023 Sudirman Cup (officially known as the TotalEnergies BWF Sudirman Cup Finals 2023 for sponsorship reasons) was the 18th edition of the Sudirman Cup, the biennial international badminton championship contested by the mixed national teams of the member associations of Badminton World Federation (BWF), since its inception in 1989. The tournament was played in Suzhou, China, between 14 and 21 May 2023.[1]China were the defending champions. They successfully defended their title, lifting the trophy for a record-extending 13th time.
Host city selection
New Delhi was awarded the hosting of the championship back in November 2018.[2] In July 2021, it was announced that Suzhou, the original host for 2021 edition, will host this edition instead and India accepted the offer to host 2026 BWF World Championships in exchange.[3]
Competition format
Qualification
Sixteen teams will participate in the final tournament in Suzhou, with the host and the defending champion will qualify automatically. Continental qualifying tournaments were held to determine the winner of allocated continental slots (4 from Asia and Europe, and 1 each from Africa, Oceania and Pan Am). The remaining slots were determined via team rankings. As China is both the host team and the defending champion, an extra slot from world ranking is opened.
The draw for the tournament was conducted on 25 March 2023, at 15:00 CST, at Suzhou City in Suzhou, China. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four.
The teams were allocated to four pots based on the World Team Rankings of 21 February 2023. Pot 1 contained the top seed China (which were assigned to position A1), the second seed Japan (which were assigned to position D1) and the next two best teams, Indonesia and Malaysia. Pot 2 contained the next best four teams and Pot 3 contained the ninth to sixteenth seeds.
The draw was held on 18 May 2023, after the last group tie. The group runners-up were drawn against the group winners. Teams from the same group could not be drawn against each other.
