The 2021 season’s first HSBC BWF World Tour competition is upon us. Here are some fascinating facts about the 66-year-old tournament, now a Super 300 event.

• Denmark is the most successful nation with 54 titles across all disciplines.
• The Danes also have the most champions in men’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
• Swiss women’s singles icon Liselotte Blumer is the last home star to win an event.
• She is also the competition’s most successful player with six victories (1975, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984).
• Camilla Martin, joint second on that list on five triumphs with Swede Par-Gunnar Jonsson and Korean Ra Kyung Min, also holds the record for most consecutive championships (1994-1998).
• Roslin Hashim and Hafiz Hashim are the only siblings to have an individual crown each. The Malaysian brothers were men’s singles champion in 2001 and 2005 respectively.
• That is part of Malaysia’s total 14 titles, which interestingly never came in categories other than the men’s singles and doubles.
• With representatives in all five events, India stand a chance of ending their wait for doubles glory.
• Their five previous winners – Kidambi Srikanth (2015), Prannoy H. S.(2016), Sameer Verma (2018) and Saina Nehwal (2011 and 2012) – are all in the draw this edition.
• They are four of 10 former winners competing this year. The others are Viktor Axelsen, Kim Astrup, Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, Mark Lamsfuss, Isabel Herttrich and Rikke SØby.
• Soby, however, is back alongside a new partner (Mikkel Mikkelsen) after winning with Mathias Bay-Smidt in 2019.
• Women’s singles top seed Carolina Marin has featured just once in Basel – in 2011 when she lost to Lindaweni Fanetri in the second round.
• Sixth seeds Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue have the chance to emulate compatriots B. Loo/Noelle Ailloud, the only French mixed pair to win their event back in 1958.
• Likewise, Thai women have the incentive of becoming only the second singles shuttler to emerge triumphant since Pratuang Pattabongs in 1959.

Standout Stat: Germany remain the sole country to complete a clean sweep, doing so at the third edition in 1957.