New Delhi, May 22 (UNI) The Olympic-qualifying India Open badminton tournament will be held here from December 8 to 13 as the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Friday announced a revamped tournament calendar for the remainder of 2020.
The World Tour Super 500 tournament was originally scheduled to be held in New Delhi from March 24-29, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As many as eight tournaments were rescheduled from their original dates, including important events such as New Zealand Open Super 300, Indonesia Open Super 1000, Malaysia Open Super 750, Thailand Open Super 500 and World Tour Finals in China.
Besides the India Open, India will also hold the annual USD 170,000 Syed Modi India International at Lucknow from November 17 to 22. However, this World Tour Super 300 tournament clashes with the cash-rich USD 1,350,000 Indonesia Open, a World Tour Super 1000 event.
In addition, India has been allotted the USD 90,000 Hyderabad Open, a BWF Tour Super 100 event, from August 11 to 16.
Apart from the World Tour events, BWF’s premier team competition, Thomas and Uber Cup Finals, will be held from October 3 to 11 at Aarhus, Denmark.
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).
"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," BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said.
"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,' he added.
The badminton season was suspended following the All England Open in March due to COVID-19.
The BWF also said that it is working on the exact model for the unfreezing of the world rankings in a staggered way to avoid any extreme drop off of points that would affect the ranking structure.
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