KUALA LUMPUR: The Singapore Open, an HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament and last qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, was cancelled Thursday.
The BWF declared: “The Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) and BWF made the decision jointly to cancel the tournament due to the on-going Covid-19 situation. All attempts were made by the SBA and BWF to provide a safe tournament environment for all participants. However, rising COVID-19 cases globally led to complex challenges in managing inbound travel. Thus, in the interests of all players, tournament personnel and the local community’s health and safety, the event has been cancelled.
“BWF can confirm the tournament will not be rescheduled. BWF will issue a further statement on Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifying at a later date.”
On the matter of qualifying for Tokyo 2020, the top-16 players on the Race to Tokyo rankings would qualify automatically for the Olympics.
The Indian badminton players who have already made the cut for the Olympics through the Race to Tokyo rankings include PV Sindhu (No. 7), B Sai Praneeth (No. 14) and the men’s doubles team of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (No. 8).
Currently, London Olympics Bronze-medal winner Saina Nehwal is at the 22nd spot among the women and Kidambi Srikanth at the 20th place in the men’s list. Which effectively rule out their already slim hopes considering the poor foirm both showed in the tournaments they entered in the recent past.
