Announcement

Transition Process to Unfreeze the BWF World Junior Rankings

We are pleased to announce that the transition process to unfreeze the World Junior Rankings will begin on 2 August 2022 (the same time as the unfreezing process as the World Rankings) towards a live, 52 week ranking on 3 January 2023.


  1.  Historical Background

Due to the impact of COVID-19, the BWF World Junior Rankings were frozen as of 17 March 2020.

In January 2022, age ineligible players were removed from the frozen BWF World Junior Rankings.

Also in 2022, BWF implemented the BWF Junior International Tournament Entry and Seeding Ranking List, including all tournaments counting towards the currently frozen World Junior Rankings, and all eligible Grade 1, 2, 3, and Junior International Tournaments in 2021 and 2022. This ranking list is currently used for entry and seeding purposes for Junior International Tournaments.


  1.  Key Transition Principles
  • The tournament calendar is robust enough, with particular emphasis on the Junior International and Grade 3 levels of tournaments. While the number of Junior International Tournaments hosted in each region is not consistent, it was adequate when the number of Grade 3 tournaments available is taken into consideration.
  • The impact of the oldest tournaments (open and junior) still included in the frozen BWF World Junior Ranking on players is minimal as most players in those tournaments are not age-eligible anymore.
  • Open tournaments counting for BWF World Ranking also count for the BWF World Junior Ranking, so it is important to consider the connection of open tournaments to any plan to unfreeze the BWF World Junior Ranking.
  • That Member Associations have enough time to plan effectively for the BWF World Junior Championships and other key tournaments.
  • That Member Associations have enough notice to appropriately prepare for the start of the transition period.

  1. Transition Process / Timeline

On 2 August 2022, the BWF World Junior Rankings will be updated to include all tournaments counting for the BWF Junior International Tournament Entry and Seeding Ranking List. The BWF Junior International Tournament Entry and Seeding Ranking list will be eliminated. The BWF World Junior Ranking will again be used for entry and seeding purposes for Junior International Tournaments.

For each week of the newly published ranking starting on 2 August 2022, an average of four weeks of historical World Junior Ranking results/points will be removed from the BWF World Junior Rankings, commencing with those tournaments from Week 12 (March 2019), and finishing on 3 January 2023.