The Sands China Ltd. Macau Open Badminton 2024 marked the end of the "Asian leg" of the BWF World Tour and the start of the "European leg," beginning with the CLASH ROYALE Arctic Open powered by YONEX on October 8th. However, despite marking the end of the Asian leg, it definitely didn’t signal the start of European dominance in the sport

As we mentioned in our opening article, the hopes for European players were always slim, given the limited participation of Europeans in Macau and some unfortunate draws. However, there were still opportunities for European athletes to secure meaningful victories. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Ben Lane and Sean Vendy, the top-seeded pair, fell to the newly formed Chinese duo, Chen Xu Jun and Liu Yi, who went on to win the tournament— their first major victory as a pair.