India Open badminton tournament to be held behind closed doors from May 11

Reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin and World No. 1 Kento Momota will spearhead a star-studded list of international shuttlers at upcoming India Open Super 500 badminton tournament, scheduled to be held between May 11 and 16 behind closed doors due to a spike in COVID-19 cases across the country.

India Open, a USD 400,000 tournament, is one of the last few qualification events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The evnt has attracted 228 entries (114 men and 114 women) from 33 different national associations.

Issuing astatement, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) said that “due to the rapidly rising COVID-19 cases in the country, the tournament will be contested in a bio-secure bubble without spectators and media while implementing strict COVID-19 safety protocols.”

“All the players and officials coming from South Africa, Brazil, Middle East and European countries including UK will be serving a 7-day quarantine period and have to report in the capital city on May 3,” BAI said in a release.

“Players and officials from rest of the world can arrive on May 6 and undergo a 4-day quarantine period,” it added.

Hosts India has fielded 48 shuttlers (27 women and 21 men), while Malaysia has the second biggest squad with 26 shuttlers (10 women and 16 men).

Former World No 1 Kidambi Srikanth will lead the Indian challenge along with B Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap.

On the other hand, India’s men’s doubles challenge will be spearheaded by World No. 10 duo comprising Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. In the women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will eye some valuable Olympic qualification points..

The governing body said that the Delhi Government will conduct RT-PCR test on arrival of shuttlers on May 3 and 6 May as well as on May 9 and 14.

“We are really happy to finally be able resume badminton action. But with the recent spike in cases, we have to be more cautious,” BAI general secretary of BAI Ajay Singhania said.

“We understand spectators have been an integral part of our growth story but this year despite it being an Olympic qualifier and an array of star shuttlers in action, we have to take the decision of conducting the tournament in a bio bubble,” he added.

News Desk

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