Singapore Open could be latest badminton casualty of virus

By Fabian Peter - February 4, 2021 @ 9:09am

THE Badminton World Federation (BWF) have yet to make any major announcements, but the Singapore Open on March 13-18 could become the latest victim of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following the extension of the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia on Tuesday, it is understood that Singapore is also contemplating against hosting its Super 500 event.

Just a day earlier, Timesport reported that the Malaysian Open on March 31-April 4, and the Malaysia Masters on April 6-11 could be called off.

Yesterday, the Badminton Asia (BA) confirmed the cancellation of this month's Asia Mixed Team Championships.

"In this ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many Asian governments are still imposing strict travel restrictions and quarantine requirements to those entering the respective countries.

"Players who participated in the recent Asian leg of the World Tour in Bangkok are under mandatory quarantine after returning from these events. Unfortunately, this means that players will not be able to participate in events close to these dates as the hosting member associations are still imposing strict quarantine requirements.

"The BA also took into consideration the timing of the Mixed Team event, among other competitions. The European bubble of events will take place next month, and they are Olympic qualifying events.

"The Mixed Team event is not part of the Olympic qualification for Tokyo.

"The event was intended to be the continental qualification for the Sudirman Cup. However, the BWF have concluded that if continental qualification events are not held this year, qualification will be based on world rankings," read the statement.

Meanwhile, the BWF have upgraded the Asia Championships for individual events to a World Tour Super 1000 competition, becoming the highest-ranking continental championships from 2022.