Badminton: BWF cancels India Open and Hyderabad Open due to Covid-19

The India Open Super 500 and Hyderabad Open Super 100 tournaments were on Monday cancelled by the Badminton World Federation (BWF), which announced a revamped international calender to salvage the remaining season affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The USD 400,000 India Open, which was supposed to be one of the qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics, was scheduled to be held from May 11 to 16 but was postponed in April due to rising COVID cases in the national capital. The USD 1,00,000 Hyderabad Open was slated to be held from August 24 to 29. However, Syed Modi India International Super 300 tournament, scheduled to be held in Lucknow from October 12 to 17, remained on course as of now, according to the new calender.

In other announcements, BWF on Monday said that Finland will host the Sudirman Cup Finals in September-October while the season-ending World Tour Finals will be staged in Indonesia. China was scheduled to host both the Sudirman Cup Final and the World Tour Finals but BWF decided to move both the events out of the country due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The apex body also decided to push the prestigious World Championships, to be held in Spain in December, by two weeks. "COVID-19 restrictions have meant it is not feasible to conduct tournaments in China this year. Therefore, alternative host cities have been identified for the TotalEnergies BWF Sudirman Cup Finals 2021 and the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2021," BWF said in a statement. "Vantaa, Finland is the new host of the TotalEnergies BWF Sudirman Cup Finals 2021 in Week 39 (26 September – 3 October 2021)."

Action will then shift to Denmark which will host the Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2020 in Aarhus (October 9-17), which was postponed last year. It will be followed by back-to-back World Tour events -- DANISA Denmark Open in Odense (October 19-24), YONEX French Open in Paris (October 26-31) and SaarLorLux Open in Saarbrücken, Germany (November 2-7).

The governing body will then create a bio-bubble in Indonesia, similar to Thailand, to host a three-tournament Asian Leg in Bali, including the World Tour Final. The Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open will be held from November 16-21 and November 23-28, followed by the World Tour Finals from December 1-5. "The final tournament of the calendar year will be the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships in Huelva, Spain in Week 50 (12-19 December 2021)." the world body said.