The Yonex All England Open will be the first MetLife BWF World Superseries event in 2015 – giving elite players a two-month break at the start of the year.

Maintaining its usual slot in the BWF calendar, the Birmingham-based tournament will be held 3-8 March, with the Victor Korea Open and Maybank Malaysia Open – Superseries and Superseries Premier events respectively that were previously staged in January – taking place later.

Announcing this to media at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open yesterday, BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said players had been asking for a break to rest and, that following the BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Finals in December, this will be factored into the BWF’s tournament schedule.

Therefore, next year’s season begins with a number of Grand Prix Gold events in January and February before the Yonex All England Open starts the World Superseries circuit in March.

This decision enables the players to refresh themselves after a hectic 2014 which includes the 12-stop World Superseries; BWF Major Events such as the Li-Ning BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals and the BWF World Championships as well as other key tournaments like the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and various continental championships.

While the 2015 tournament schedule is still being finalised, other World Superseries events whose dates have been confirmed are the Australian Open which has shifted to late May; the Hong Kong Open in mid-November and the year-ending World Superseries Finals in mid-December.

Just last week it was announced that Dubai will host the top-eight finishers in all categories of the World Superseries in the BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Finals from 2014 to 2017.