The $120,000 India Open Grand Prix Gold, which was scheduled to be held at Lucknow in December this year, has been postponed by a month to January next year by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Since its inception in 2009, the India Open tournament — named after 1982 Commonwealth Games champion Syed Modi from Uttar Pradesh — has been organised in December but the fifth edition will now be held in January.
“We had requested the BWF to postpone the tournament a few months back. They agreed to our request and gave us a new slot in January,” Badminton Association of India (BAI) general secretary Vijai Sinha said.
“We miss out the participation of many players as they prepare for the BWF Super Series Final and then don’t come for the India Open. Also since it happens just ahead of the Christmas, European players also skip it but now we can expect the participation of more players,” he added.
The tournament, which was won by P. Kashyap last year, will now be held from January 21 to 26 instead of December 17 to 22.
