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Indian badminton stars Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap have decided to pull out of the Denmark Open event which was scheduled to start from October 13 in Odense.
The Denmark Open is a BWF Super 750 event which will mark the restart of the international badminton tour after it had come to a halt since March due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis around the world.
Saina Nehwal spoke to PTI about her withdrawal from the tournament and informed about her plans to return to competitive action from next year.
"I withdrew from Denmark Open. I decided that I will start the season from January only with the Asian tour," Nehwal said.
The husband-wife pairing had earlier confirmed their entries to the USD 750,000 tournament in Odense and even sent their consent letters to the Badminton Association of India (BAI) affirming their willingness to travel to Denmark.
The Denmark Open is the only BWF World Tour event that will be scheduled for the remainder of the international badminton season.
The BWF had earlier postponed the Thomas and Uber Cup finals (scheduled initially for October 3-11) and three tournaments in Asia (scheduled in November) to 2021. They had also confirmed the cancellation of the Denmark Masters event that was scheduled to be held later this month.
Saina Nehwal's withdrawal means no Indian participation in women's singles
The withdrawal of World No. 20 Saina Nehwal means that there will be no Indian representation in the women's singles category at the Denmark Open as fellow Indian player PV Sindhu had already pulled out of the event as well.
Saina Nehwal also expressed that she had no injury or fitness concerns but decided to directly resume her season with the Asian tour.
"There is no injury issue but if three tournaments were there it would have made sense... I thought directly from January, I can go for the Asian tour," she added.
Parupalli Kashyap, who is ranked World No. 24, also confirmed his withdrawal from the tournament owing to similar reasons as his partner.
"I too feel it is not worth the risk to go all the way for one tournament. It is better to start the season afresh participating in the Asia leg from January," Kashyap said.
With the withdrawal of the pair, former World No.1 Kidambi Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram, Subhankar Dey and Lakshya Sen are the only Indian shuttlers who will be competing at the Denmark Open.
