All England Open Badminton Championships 2023 preview: Full schedule and how to watch live

One of badminton's biggest prizes will be on offer next week in Birmingham, England, as the 2023 All England Open Badminton Championships take place from 14–19 March.

The first BWF World Tour Super 1000 event of the 2023 season will see all the top stars in action, with full draws of 32 players and pairs in all five events.

World number one shuttlers Viktor Axelsen and Yamaguchi Akane also happen to be the defending champions from 2022, and both return to the Arena Birmingham as the top seeds.

Here's who else you should keep an eye on in the singles events in Birmingham, and how you can follow all the action.

All England Open Championships: Men to watch

Axelsen is understandably the heavy favourite in every event he enters – after all, he is world number one, world champion, and Olympic champion, and has made the final in seven of his last eight major tournaments, winning six.

You have to go back to last season's Thailand Open to find the last time Axelsen did not make it out of the round of 16. The Dane is a big-tournament player and will be expected to show up and perform.

How will Lee Zii Jia do? The Malaysian famously won this tournament in 2021 as he pushed his way up through the rankings, eventually hitting a high of world number two last year. But Lee has struggled for consistency, and has dropped back to fourth in the world.

There are also two Indonesian seeds in the men's draw with Jonatan Christie second and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting third. With Christie holding a lifetime 2–7 record against Axelsen, being in the opposing half to the draw to the Dane could help him progress far.

The other seeds are: Chou Tien-chen (TPE, 5), Kunlavut Vitidsarn (THA, 6), Naraoka Kodai (JPN, 7), and Loh Kean Yew (SGP, 8).

All England Open Championships: Women to watch 

The women's singles field is stacked. There are four former winners of the title among the eight seeds: Yamaguchi, Tai Tzu-ying (TPE, 3), Olympic champion Chen Yufei (CHN, 4), and Carolina Marín (ESP, 7).

Second seed An Se-young of Republic of Korea also has experience of a deep run in Birmingham, reaching last year's final before falling to Yamaguchi at the final hurdle.

There is every chance of any of them making it similarly far this year, given the combined experience the women's seeds have in difficult tournaments. However, notably, Tai has only played four matches all season, reaching the semi-finals at the Malaysia Open in January but not taking to the court since on the World Tour.

How the lack of game time will affect Tai in Birmingham remains to be seen.

The other seeds are: He Bingjiao (CHN, 5), Wang Zhiyi (CHN, 6), and Ratchanok Intanon (THA, 8).

2023 All England Open schedule

All times GMT (UTC). Times and order of play are subject to change at any time. End times are approximate.

Tuesday 14 March

• 10:00–20:00: Round of 32 matches (4 courts, 40 matches)

Wednesday 15 March

• 10:00–20:00: Round of 32 matches (4 courts, 40 matches)

Thursday 16 March

• 10:00–20:00: Round of 16 matches (4 courts, 40 matches)

Friday 17 March

• 10:00–15:00: Quarter-finals (2 courts, 10 matches)
• 17:00–22:00: Quarter-finals (2 courts, 10 matches)

Saturday 18 March

• 10:00–15:00: Semi-finals (1 court, 5 matches)
• 17:00–22:00: Semi-finals (1 court, 5 matches)

Sunday 19 March

• 10:00–15:00: Finals (1 court, 5 matches)

How to watch and follow 2023 All England Open

The tournament will be broadcast by various television and digital live streaming rights holders across the different countries and territories around the world.

That includes Olympic Channel via Olympics.com, for free, in some countries (territorial restrictions may apply).

If you are unable to find a screen, be sure to follow our coverage on Olympics.com and follow @olympics on social media to stay abreast of all the results and news from the 2023 All England Open Badminton Championships.

All England Open Badminton Championships: Who are the defending champions? 

Viktor Axelsen and Yamaguchi Akane are the defending champions. Both are also the top seeds for badminton's most prestigious and traditional World Tour event