The postponement of the Malaysia Open has poured cold water on the hopes of Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. The India Open (May 11-16), Malaysia Open (May 25-30) were Olympic qualification tournaments that could’ve furthered the cause of the Indians, but both of them have been postponed. The Badminton World Federation postponed the Malaysia Open due to the surge in Covid-19 cases locally.
"Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and Badminton World Federation (BWF) have jointly agreed to postpone the Malaysia Open... BWF can confirm the rescheduled tournament will no longer take place in the Olympic qualifying window," BWF said.
Only the Singapore Open (June 1-6) remains in the Olympic qualification window, but Saina and Srikanth will not make the cut even if they win that tournament. Saina is ranked 22nd in the Race to Tokyo rankings. With 43,037 ranking points, Saina needs to get past Beiwen Zhang of USA (49,010), Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark ((47,891) and Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia (45,200).
Only two players from each country make it to Olympics and that too if they are in the top-16. To get into top-16, Saina needs at least 7,000 points. Even if she wins the Singapore Open, Saina can get only around 6,000 points.
Srikanth’s case is similar. With 42,989 points, he is ranked 20th in the Race to Tokyo rankings. A win in Singapore will fetch him 6,000 points, which will not be enough to break into the top-16. Srikanth has four players ahead of him and sources said that Singapore Open is also likely to be postponed.
