Badminton World Federation says India Open schedule could 'improve' further, wants players' support

New Delhi: Badminton World Federation (BWF) Secretary General Thomas Lund on Thursday said the governing body is continuing to examine the scheduling of India Open, which has been moved from January to February in 2027 following concerns around pollution during peak winter season here.

The India Open Super 750 tournament in New Delhi will be held from February 2-7 next year, shifting from its previous January slot to address player complaints.

"There's obviously a lot of logistical things when you do these things, and we have obviously been in close dialogue around the whole calendar," Lund told reporters.


"Coming into 2027, it's quite a bit of quite short space and for now it hasn't been possible to totally move around, move out of the first quarter."

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World No. 4 Anders Antonsen, a four-time World Championships medallist, has missed the India Open for the last three editions, including this year, due to pollution and coped a fine of USD 5,000 for his latest withdrawal.

Lund said BWF considered the impact of Delhi's air pollution when assessing the tournament's timing.

"It is documented that pollution will go down a little bit further into February," he said

He acknowledged that a complete restructuring of the calendar has not yet been possible because of domestic scheduling commitments, but said the BWF has already made improvements and would continue to assess further changes.

"Right now it hasn't been possible due to domestic load to actually totally move around in the calendar, but something we are looking at," Lund said.

"But we have actually looked into a schedule that has been improved and will be improved further down the road."

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Player welfare, he said, was another factor behind broader changes to the World Tour calendar.

"Yes, we can also see restarting the tour overall slightly later into January, which is also another player health safeguarding," Lund said.

Lund said BWF believed the changes already made represented progress, while recognising that some players may still feel more needs to be done.

"I think everything has helped. Some players may not feel it's enough, but we just obviously hope for the players' understanding that we live in a world where everything cannot just be set up," he said.

He also underlined the importance BWF attaches to keeping the India Open on the international calendar.

"We hope for their support and continuous support because obviously this is a super important tournament, super important market, not only World Championships, but also the World Tour tournament that we continue to present here in India at the very highest level," Lund said.

"So we need the players' support for that and we hope we'll get it."