Indian Open badminton is officially off

New Delhi, Oct 01: The Badminton Association of India that requested the international body to re-schedule the $150,000 Yonex Sunrise India Open to January 2008 has now officially withdrawn the request. Anne Smillie, Badminton World Federation chair of events, confirmed this and said a request was made to organise the event in the week ending Jan 13, 2008. The tournament was originally scheduled for Hyderabad Sep 4-9 at the Kotla Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium.

However, the twin bomb blasts that claimed 42 lives one week before the tournament forced the organisers to postpone the event. After requesting for a change in dates, the Indian association asked for the event to be cancelled and it is now likely to be held in second half of 2008. Interestingly, for the first time ever, a reigning women`s singles world champion - Zhu Lin of China - had confirmed her entry for the event. Also confirmed were the women`s doubles world champions Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen along with Bao Chunlai and Chen Yu, both semi-finalists at the recent World championships in Malaysia. Bureau Report