BWF cancels India Open, Hyderabad Open; shifts Sudirman Cup and World Tour Finals from China

The $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.

Published : Jun 28, 2021 15:33 IST , New Delhi

The India Open Super 500 and Hyderabad Open Super 100 tournaments have been cancelled.
The India Open Super 500 and Hyderabad Open Super 100 tournaments have been cancelled.
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The India Open Super 500 and Hyderabad Open Super 100 tournaments have been cancelled.

The India Open Super 500 and Hyderabad Open Super 100 tournaments have been cancelled, with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Monday announcing a revamped international calendar to salvage the rest of the season affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The $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 $1,00,000 Hyderabad Open was slated to be held from August 24 to 29.

However, the Syed Modi India International Super 300 tournament, scheduled to be held in Lucknow from October 12 to 17, remains on course as of now, according to the new calendar.

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In other announcements on Monday, the BWF said 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 Finals and the World Tour Finals, but the BWF decided to move both events out of the country due to COVID-19 restrictions. The sport’s apex body also decided to push the prestigious World Championships, originally scheduled 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,” the 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).”

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

The BWF will then create a bio-bubble in Indonesia, similar to Thailand, to host a three-tournament Asian Leg in Bali, including the World Tour Finals.

The Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open will be held from November 16 to 21 and November 23 to 28, respectively, followed by the World Tour Finals from December 1 to 5.

The final tournament of the calendar year will be the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships in Huelva, Spain, from December 12 to 19.

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