Malaysia Open cancelled due to COVID, Saina Nehwal's Olympic hopes hit
Several Indian players will be hit as the Malaysia Open was an Olympic qualifying event.
Indian badminton stars Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth’s hopes of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics suffered a setback after Malaysia Open, an event with Olympic ranking points on offer, was postponed on Friday.
The BWF Super 750 event, scheduled from May 25-30, was one of the two remaining events that offer Olympic ranking points. The Singapore Open, to be held from June 1-6, is the last badminton qualification tournament ahead of the Summer Games.
“All attempts were made by the organisers and BWF to provide a safe tournament environment for all participants, but the recent surge in cases left no choice but to postpone the tournament,” the Badminton World Federation (BWF) said in a statement.
The BWF also confirmed that the rescheduled event will no longer be held within the qualifying window for Tokyo 2020 that ends on June 15. New dates for the Malaysia Open will be confirmed at a later date.
While Saina Nehwal is ranked 22nd in women’s singles of the Race To Tokyo badminton rankings, the former world No. 1 Srikanth is 20th in the men’s half.
The postponement of the India Open, which was scheduled in Delhi between May 11-16, has already dealt a severe blow to Indian shuttlers with Tokyo ambitions.
As things stand, B Sai Praneeth (men’s singles), PV Sindhu (women’s singles) and the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (men’s doubles) are among the shuttlers who will gain a direct entry into the Summer Games.