Pi Hongyan is one of a number of talented Chinese-born badminton players who have emigrated from China, in part, because of the intense competition to gain positions on its national team, and because of the elite status within the sport that such a player is likely to hold in other badminton playing countries. Her titles include women's singles at the U.S. (1999), German (2001, 2002), Bitburger (2001, 2002), Portugal (2001, 2003), Swiss (2001, 2005), Croatian (2003), French (2003, 2004, 2005), Dutch (2004), Denmark (2005), Singapore (2006) and India (2009) Opens. At the biennial European Championships she was a silver medalist in 2004 and a bronze medalist in 2008 and 2010. She was runner-up to China's Xie Xingfang at the prestigious All-England Championships in 2007. Pi has been at least a quarter-finalist in each of the last six consecutive BWF World Championships (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011), with a bronze medal in 2009, as well as a quarter-finalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The BWF Superseries, which was launched on 14 December 2006 and implemented in 2007,[4] was a series of elite badminton tournaments, sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). BWF Superseries levels were Superseries and Superseries Premier. A season of Superseries consisted of twelve tournaments around the world that had been introduced since 2011.[5] Successful players were invited to the Superseries Finals, which were held at the end of each year.
The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and played between 2007 and 2017. The World Badminton Grand Prix was sanctioned by the International Badminton Federation from 1983 to 2006.
