KOREAN OPEN: BADMINTON'S RICHEST OPEN TOURNAMENT
by Mike Grossman

January 19, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - The next stop on badminton's major tournament circuit, the Grand Prix, is in Seoul, Korea for the Korean Open, scheduled for January 21 to January 26.

This year's Korean Open is the richest ever for a badminton open tournament and offers a total purse of 250,000 U.S. dollars, surpassing the 225,000 U.S. dollars that was at stake at the 1996 U.S. Open.

Because of the amount of prize money, this year's Korean Open has been designated a six-star tournament by the International Badminton Federation. This means that players will get more ranking points for performing well in this competition than any other tourney except for the Olympic Games and the badminton world championships.

The prize money and the six-star designation is certain to attract many of the world's top players, although some of them may not be in the best of shape after playing in two successive five-star events, the Taipei Open last week and the just-concluded Japan Open.

The purse at the Korean Open is not the largest amount of prize money offered at a badminton tournament, though. That honor belongs to the year-ending Grand Prix Finals, a tournament of champions and super-elite players. Prize money for the 1996 Grand Prix Finals was 350,000 U.S. dollars.