The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Friday unveiled a revamped tournament calendar for the remainder of 2020 following disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which it announced that the Olympic-qualifying India Open badminton tournament will now be held from December 8 to 13 in New Delhi.
Originally scheduled to be held from March 24 to 29, the India Open Super 500 was one of several tournaments that the Badminton Association of India (BAI) had suspended on March 13 due to the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The India Open would be preceded by the Hyderabad Open (August 11 to 16) and the Syed Modi International (November 17 to 22 in Lucknow).
The Hyderabad Open in fact is slated to be the first tournament in the new calendar, starting the season after the covid lockdown.
BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said: "It has been a difficult task to plan for badminton's return. It is a condensed calendar but we are confident this provides the framework to allow us to start again when it is safe and logistically possible."
"At this point in time, it is difficult to predict when international movement and entry restrictions will be lifted by individual countries and territories, but we will not resume competition unless it is absolutely clear that is safe to do so.
"The health, safety and wellbeing of all athletes, their entourage, officials and the greater badminton community remains our No.1 priority," he added.
As many as eight tournaments have been rescheduled from their original dates.
As previously announced, the Thomas & Uber Cup Finals will take place in Aarhus, Denmark on the rescheduled dates of October 3-11, said the BWF.
The tournaments that have been cancelled by the BWF are Orleans Masters 2020 (March 24-29), Singapore Open (April 7-12), Badminton Asia Championships 2020 (April 21-26), XXIV Pan Am Individual Championships 2020 (April 23-26), US Open 2020 (June 23-28), Canada Open 2020 (June 30-July 5), Russian Open (July 7-12), Akita Masters 2020 (August 18-23), Vietnam Open 2020 (August 25-30) and Indonesia Masters 2020 Super 100 (September 29-October 4).
(With inputs from IANS)
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