Korea Open, Macau Open cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

NEW DELHI: The Korea Open and Macau Open were on Wednesday cancelled by the game's governing body BWF due to rising cases of COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

The apex body also postponed the World Junior badminton championships which was scheduled to be held in China.

The Korea Open (August 31 to September 5), a Super 500 event, was scheduled to resume the BWF World Tour which was suspended after the All England Championships in March.

The Macau Open Super 300, on the other hand, was scheduled to be held from November 2 to 7.

"The Korea Masters 2021 which was previously listed as postponed is also now cancelled.

The ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and complications left local organisers no choice but to cancel the tournaments," BWF said in a release.

"BWF is still committed to delivering the remainder of the 2021 calendar as planned we look to provide players with a safe and structured platform to earn important world ranking points and prize money in these coming months.

" The governing body also decided to upgrade the SaarLorLux Open (Nov 2-7) in Saarbrücken, Germany to World Tour Super 500 status and rechristen it to Hylo Open 2021.

"It will round out the European Leg of the HSBC BWF World Tour following stops in Denmark and France," BWF said.

A final decision on Malaysia Masters Super 500 event and Malaysia Open Super 750, which were postponed earlier, will come at a later date, BWF said.

Earlier, China Open (Sept 21-26), Japan Open (Sept 28-Oct 3), Fuzhou China Open (Nov 9-14) and Hong Kong Open (Nov 16-21) are the important events which were cancelled due to the global health crisis.

In the junior circuit, the governing body postponed the BWF World Junior Championships which was supposed to be hosted by China from October 4 to 17.

"Unfortunately, it is not feasible to conduct any tournaments in China this year. No replacement dates or locations have been set," it said.