Kevin/Marcus Only Appear At All England On The European Tour, Turns Out This Is The Reason

Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon. (Photo: Twitter @INABadminton)

JAKARTA - The pair Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon are confirmed to only appear at the All England event on a European tour. This is related to the ranking of The Minions who are now in 19th position BWF.

This was conveyed by the men's doubles coach of the PBSI National Training Center, Aryono Miranat. He said, The Minions are still ranked 19th in the world so they still have the right to play at the BWF Super 500, 750, and 1000 levels.

"Because after All England went to Switzerland (level) Super 300. Kevin/Marcus only played in Super 500, 750, and 1000," said Aryono.

From Aryono's explanation, the former world number one men's doubles have not yet dropped to a lower level tournament even though their rankings have fallen far from before.

Aryono said, if later Kevin/Marcus participates in the Super 300 event, it must be based on discussions and in-depth calculations.

"It needs to be discussed with them first, because the points have dropped and later if (the ranking) is thrown outside 32 worlds, they cannot participate in 500, 750, and 1000. So yes, we have to go down to 300 again. We will discuss it again so that it doesn't get thrown," Aryono explained, as reported by Antara, Thursday, March 9.

Based on the BWF calendar, there will be five tournaments for the European tour agenda. However, only All England categorized as the BWF Super 1000 and four other tournaments namely the German Open, Swiss Open, Spain Masters, and Orleans Masters are at the Super 300 level.

After All England, the tournament that will be a Minions event to appear again in the Super Series is the Malaysia Masters which is categorized as Super 500.

The tournament which will take place in Kuala Lumpur is part of the Southeast Asia tour which contains four tournaments from May to June.

Apart from the Malaysia Masters, the other three tournaments are the Indonesia Open (Super 1000), Thailand Open (Super 500), and Singapore Open (Super 750).