‘Spin serve’ not allowed at Sudirman Cup, Malaysia Masters

Badminton World Federation Council has approved an interim ban on the ‘spin serve,’ the global governing body of the sport said in a statement on Friday.

Representative Image: BWF has approved an interim ban on the ‘spin serve.’

Badminton World Federation (BWF) Council has approved an interim ban on the ‘spin serve,’ the global governing body of the sport said in a statement on Friday.

As per the statement, “BWF Council has approved a proposal for an ‘experimental variation’ to the Laws of Badminton to forbid the use of the new ‘spin serve’ effective immediately until 29 May 2023.

“The amendment to 9.1.5 of Section 4.1 of the BWF Laws of Badminton now states that the server shall release the shuttle without adding spin, and the server’s racket shall initially hit the base of the shuttle.”

The interim ban takes effect at all BWF sanction international tournaments including the Sudirman Cup Finals starting May 14 in Suzhou, China and the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur the following week.

Danish doubles player Marcus Rindshoj accumulated a bunch of points with the innovative spin serve at the Polish Open last month. This is a kind of serve where the shuttler holds the cork of the shuttlecock in between his or her thumb and middle finger and tries to put a spin to it with a carrom strike motion before sending it across the net with the racquet.

BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer said, “BWF welcomes players creating innovation in our game and experimenting with techniques to create competitive advantage on court.

“However, we have received several points of feedback from within the badminton community, including the BWF Athletes’ Commission, expressing that this ‘spin serve’ could have a negative impact on the game.

Whether ‘spin serve’ has a future in the sport will next be decided at BWF’s upcoming AGM on May 27.