News Sydney’s Olympic Park was the stage as the world’s best badminton players competed for crucial ranking points on the road to Rio The 2015 Australian Open, which came to a close on Sunday (31 May), was worth a whopping 9,200 ranking points to the winners of each category, with only the Olympic Games themselves, the world championships and the Super Series grand final worth more When qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games closes next May, points earned in Sydney will be crucial China’s Chen Long, the current world no 1, won the men’s singles title, overcoming Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in the final The Dane had earlier beaten Chinese superstar and world no 2 Lin Dan In the women’s singles event, Spain’s world no 3 Carolina Marín struck a blow against Asian dominance of the sport by beating China’s Wang Shixian to gold The Republic of Korea took gold in the men’s doubles, Yoo Yeon Seong and Lee Yong Dae being the only successful defending champions as they overcame Chinese duo Liu Cheng and Lu Kai China had better luck in the women’s doubles, with Ma Jin and Tang Yuanting triumphing over compatriots Tang Jinhua and Tian Qing in a closely fought contest Hong Kong won the mixed the doubles, Lee Chung Hei and Chau Hoi Wah beating Chinese duo Liu Cheng and Bao Yixin in the final The Australian Open was the fifth stage of the Super Series season Click here to see all the results and click here to see the latest world rankings In all, 176 athletes will take part in the singles and doubles badminton events at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Brazil is the only country with qualification guaranteed in the singles events The rest of the places will be decided on 6 May 2016, when the final world rankings are published Each nation may have two players in each event, or two pairs in the doubles Rio2016 com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games) The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC) Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota