Kuala Lumpur: The Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced on Wednesday that this year’s Korea Open and Macau Open have been canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The Korea Open which was scheduled to be held from August 31 to September 5, was a BWF World Tour Super 500 event while the Macau Open was scheduled to be held from November 2 to November 7, and it’s a BWF Super 300 event.
“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,” said BWF in its announcement.
“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.”
BWF also decided to change the name of SaarLorLux Open to Hylo Open, and the tournament has been upgraded to BWF Super 500 status. It will be the last tournament of the European Leg tournament after the Denmark Open (Oct 19 to Oct 14), and the French Open (Oct 26 to Oct 31). The Hylo Open will be held from Nov 2 to Nov 7 in Saarbrücken, Germany.
At the junior level, BWF has also postponed the World Junior Championships which were 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,” BWF explained.
BWF also confirmed that the 2021 Malaysia Masters (Super 500) and CELCOM AXIATA Malaysia Open 2021 (Super 750) remained to be postponed until further notice.
