The India Open Super 500 tournament, one of the last three qualifying events for the Tokyo Olympics, was on Monday postponed due to the raging COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The USD 400,000 India Open was scheduled to be held behind closed doors in the national capital from May 11 to 16. "Considering the current challenges, BAI is left with no option but to announce the postponement of the tournament for the time being," Badminton Association of India (BAI) general secretary Ajay Singhania said at a virtual press conference.

The 2020 edition of the India Open was cancelled after it was initially postponed from March to December. "It is unfortunate that we had to postpone it for the second time. But I am confident when situation will improve, we will conduct the tournament properly. "The fresh dates has still not been decided. That is something BWF will let us know in time." India have reported 2,73,810 new positive cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day surge taking the country`s caseload past the 1.5 crore mark. As many as 1,619 people have succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours. Delhi has emerged as the worst hit city with 25,462 cases reported on Sunday. Given the grave situation, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced a six-day lockdown starting tonight till next Monday. "Delhi is going into a lockdown from tonight and we don`t know what would happen next and what would be the impact," Singhania said.