The Olympic-qualifying India Open badminton tournament, which was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will now be held here from December 8 to 13 after the BWF unveiled a revised calendar to salvage the disruption-hit season.
The World Tour Super 500 tournament, originally scheduled to be held in New Delhi from March 24-29, will now take place from December 8 to 13, the BWF said in a release.
The all-important event will be preceded by the Hyderabad Open (August 11 to 16) and the Syed Modi International (November 17 to 22).
The BWF announcement comes a day after India’s singles players were allowed access to indoor courts with badminton in the list of 11 sports which have been permitted to resume training.
As many as eight tournaments were rescheduled from their original dates, including important events such as New Zealand Open Super 300 (Oct 20-25), Indonesia Open Super 1000 (Nov 17-22), Malaysia Open Super 750 (Nov 24-29), Thailand Open Super 500 (Dec 1-6) and season-ending World Tour Finals (Dec 16-20) in Guangzhou, China.
Four tournaments — German Open (March 3-8), Swiss Open (March 17-22), European Championships (April 21-26) and Australian Open (June 2-7) remained suspended with BWF saying that “suitable replacement dates are still being finalised.”
As many as 10 tournaments, including Singapore Open Super 500 (April 7-12), Badminton Asia C’ships (April 21-26) — which fell within the April 28 Olympic qualification deadline — were cancelled.
According to the revised calender, the HSBC BWF World Tour will return with the Taipei Open Super 300 from September 1-6, while the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Aarhus, Denmark will take place on the rescheduled dates of October 3-11.
