India Open Set for December as BWF Announces Fresh Calendar After Covid-19 Stoppage

India Open Super 500 will now be held in December in New Delhi after Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced a restructured calendar for the rest of the season on Friday.

The Olympic-qualifying tournament was originally slated for March 24-29 but with the coronavirus pandemic wrecking havoc all over the world, the event was cancelled.

Now, the India Open is slated for December 8-13.

According to the revised BWF calendar, the season will restart with Hyderabad Open on August 11-16. Syed Modi International will be held in Lucknow from November 17-22.

Earlier this month, BWF had said to News18.com that it was difficult for them to plan a calendar because of travel restriction around the world with coronavirus pandemic.

But BWF Secretary General, Thomas Lund had said they have worked on a revised calendar and the same was announced on Friday.

"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," Lund said in BWF's media release.

"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."

BWF further said that they were still working on a model to freeze the world rankings in a way that avoids any extreme drop in rankings.

"There are also ongoing considerations around the mandatory player regulations and how this is impacted by the revamped tournament schedule," BWF further said.

Some of the other important tournament dates in the calendar are as follows:

China Open Super 1000 - September 15-20 in Changzhou

Japan Open Super 750 - Sepmber 22-27 in Tokyo

Thomas and Uber Cup Finals - October 3-11 in Aarhus

Denmark Open Super 750 - October 13-18 in Odense

French Open Super 750 - October 20-25 in Paris

China Open Super 750 - November 3-8 in Fuzhou

Hong Kong Open Super 500 - November 10-15

Indonesia Open Super 1000 - November 17-22 in Jakarta

Malaysia Open Super 750 - November 24-29 in Kuala Lumpur

Thailand Open Super 500 - December 1-6 in Bangkok

World Tour Finals - December 16-20 in Guangzhou