Macau Open 2026 Sees Four Former Champions Return as No Defending Titleholders Compete

The Macau Open is back this week running from June 16 to 21 at the Macau East Asian Games Dome, marking the 18th edition of a tournamentthat has built quite a history over the years, and one thing stands out immediately when looking through the entry list is this time around is that not a single champion from last year's tournament has come back to defend the title they won.

That gap at the top has created room for four former winners from earlier years to compete again, each carrying their own piece of Macau Open history into this edition. Tan Wee Kiong, who won the men's doubles title back in 2013 alongside his partner Hoo Tien How, is in the field once more, and Jeon Hyeok Jin who claimed the title back in 2014, is also playing this week. In addition, Kim Gi Jung, who lifted the trophy in 2018 partnering with Lee Yong Daerounds out the group alongside Ng Ka Long Angus,, who won the men's singles crown in 2024 and enters this year's tournament as the top seed in his event, making him the only one among these four former champions currently holding that position.

Men's singles carries its own interesting pattern worth noticing this year, because looking back at the last six champions in that category, every single one of them has come from a different country, which means no nation has managed to produce back-to-back winners in that event for quite some time now.

Over in mixed doubles, top seeds Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin are walking into something completely new for them, since this marks the very first tournament they have played together as a partnership, leaving no shared history between them to draw on heading into the pressure of carrying the top seed tag.

Sportscape feels that a tournament where every single defending champion stays away is genuinely rare for an event with eighteen editions of history behind it, and having four former winners from such spread-out years all turning up together makes this particular draw feel wide open in a way that should keep badminton fans engaged from the very first round through to the final.