COVID-19: BWF cancels inaugural $90,000 Hyderabad Open

As widely expected, the inaugural $90,000 Hyderabad Open, announced as part of the Badminton World Federation calendar for 2020, stands cancelled.

On Thursday, the BWF announced its decision to cancel the event, a Super 100 event on the lower-tier BWF Tour scheduled from August 11 to 16, after getting the nod from Badminton Association of India (BAI). The prevailing situation owing to the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the authorities to cancel the event.

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Two other events, an already-suspended Australian Open (June 2-7) and Korea Open (November 24-29) have also been cancelled.

“BWF and Badminton Association of India have agreed to cancel the Hyderabad Open 2020 (11-16 August) - a Super 100 on the BWF Tour,” the BWF said in a statement.

“These changes announced today are necessary but do not directly impact the new BWF Tournament Calendar 2020, which was created to allow for changes as part of our framework for badminton’s potential return,” he said.

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Biding time

Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand admitted that it would have been difficult to commit to a tournament in August as Hyderabad is still under lockdown.

“At the moment the lockdown is still on in Hyderabad and the Telangana government has still not decided when the sports infrastructure will open even though the central government has cleared it. We are just waiting for the information,” said Gopichand.

(With inputs from PTI)