New Delhi: The India Open Super 500 and Hyderabad Open Super 100 tournaments were on Monday cancelled by the Badminton World Federation (BWF), which announced a revamped international calender to salvage the remaining 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, Syed Modi India International Super 300 tournament, scheduled to be held in Lucknow from October 12 to 17, remained on course as of now, according to the new calender.
In other announcements, the world body on Monday said that 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 Final and the World Tour Finals but BWF decided to move both the events out of the country due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The apex body also decided to push the prestigious World Championships, to be held in Spain, by two weeks.
Denmark will host the Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2020 in Aarhus (October 9-17), which was postponed last year.
It will be followed by back-to-back World Tour events — Denmark Open in Odense (October 19-24), French Open in Paris (October 26-31) and SaarLorLux Open (Nov 2-7).
The Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open will be held from November 16-21 and November 23-28, followed by the World Tour Finals from December 1-5.