The 2020 Thomas & Uber Cup (officially known as the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2020 for sponsorship reasons) was the 31st edition of the Thomas Cup and the 28th edition of the Uber Cup, the biennial international badminton championship contested by the men and women's national teams of the member associations of Badminton World Federation (BWF). The tournament were played at Ceres Arena in Aarhus, Denmark.[1] It is the first time that Denmark hosted the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup tournament and the first time this event was held in Europe since England 1982. It was due to be played on 15–23 August 2020, but on 29 April 2020 it was postponed to the 3–11 October due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] On 15 September 2020 it was again postponed[3][4] and on 21 December 2020 it was announced that it was postponed to 9–17 October 2021.[5]
China was the defending men's champion team, and Japan was the defending women's champion team. Both were defeated in the final, by Indonesia and China respectively. Both Indonesia and China extended their record of 14 and 15 titles respectively.
Due to non-compliance with the new Anti-Doping rules by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Indonesia (as Thomas Cup champions) and Thailand (as Uber Cup bronze medal) were not permitted to display their national flag at the Victory Ceremony. Instead, they replaced it with PBSI and BAT flag, respectively.[6][7]
^1 Japan qualified both as defending champions and continental semi-finalists, therefore that quota was added to the best world team rankings for Asia.
^2 Denmark qualified both as host and continental semi-finalists, therefore that quota was added to the best world team rankings for Europe.
^3 Russia withdrew and were replaced by Spain as the next highest ranked team from Europe because Turkey declined the offer.[9]
^4 Australia withdrew and were replaced by Tahiti as the next highest ranked team from Oceania because New Zealand declined the offer.[10]
Draw[]
The original draw for the tournament was conducted on 3 August 2020, at 15:00 MST, at BWF Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. BWF then decided to redraw the tournament after the postponement from 2020 to 2021 this time to be conducted on 18 August 2021, at 15:00 MST also at the BWF headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. The 16 men and 16 women teams will be drawn into four groups of four.
For the Thomas Cup draw, the teams were allocated to three pots based on the World Team Rankings of 18 February 2021.[11][12] Pot 1 contained the top seed Indonesia (which were assigned to position A1), the second seed Japan (which were assigned to position D1) and the next two best teams, China and Denmark. Pot 2 contained the next best four teams, and Pot 3 was for the ninth to sixteenth seeds.
A similar procedure will be applied for the Uber Cup draw, where top seed Japan (which were assigned to position A1), the second seed China (which were assigned to position D1), South Korea and Thailand were in Pot 1.
^England withdrew from the tournament a few days before the competition began, after three of their four selected single players got injured. They were unable to field a competitive team due to those injuries on the top-ranked players.[14]
^The flag of Indonesia was not officially allowed to be used due to non-compliance to WADA regulations. A white flag with the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) emblem was instead used for the victory ceremony.[15]
Denmark
China
Algeria
India
Indonesia
Japan
Malaysia
France
Netherlands
Russia
Australia
Tahiti
Canada
Chinese Taipei
South Korea
Thailand
EnglandA
GermanyB
Egypt
Scotland
Spain 3
