The India Open 2026, a 750 Super Series badminton tournament, has garnered all the eyeballs even before entering the business end of it. The scoreline here reads IND 1-2 DEN.
But ironically, it is not on the count of matches won or lost by India and Denmark in the tournament, but rather on the number of allegations levelled by the players of these nations at each other.
The issue with the India Open training facility
It all started with the Danish women’s singles player Mia Blichfeldt raising issues with the training facility provided to shuttlers at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium complex, where the event is taking place.
Bllichfeldt, in a post-match interview, after her Round of 32 game on January 13 (Tuesday), said that she was disappointed with pigeons shitting around in the training facility. She also mentioned that because of the excessive dust, many players chose to train with extra layers of clothing.
The Badminton Association of India (BAI), the organising body, tried to reassure fans and players alike by saying that it was a one-off issue.
Srikanth’s intervention and the Denmark angle
There was another post-match interview on Day 2 of the event on January 14 (Wednesday), where the former world number one and veteran Indian shuttler, Kidambi Srikanth, spoke on the issue.
Srikanth said that the issue was being ballooned out of nowhere and then added an extra Denmark angle to it.
In a video shared by news agency PTI, Srikanth, who won his Round of 64 men’s singles game, said, “The conditions are totally fine here, and I don’t understand the hue and cry over it… I had to wait an hour in Denmark for my match during the 2016-17 season because the lights went out.”
“Prannoy (HS) told me that he played one game on the subsequent day and the other set the next day, so such things happen. No country does these things intentionally, as everyone wants to give their best at it,” he added.
The Atonsen blow to BAI and India Open organisers
This once again brought the issue back to the forefront, as now the facilities of a developed nation were questioned by an Indian player. Three time world championship medalist and world number three men’s singles shuttler from Denmark decided to enter the war of words and backed his countrywoman.
Uploading a story on his official Instagram handle and blaming Delhi’s pollution for his non-participation in the Indian Open for the last two seasons, Antonsen wrote, “Many is (are) curious [as] to why I have pulled out of the India Open for the 3rd consecutive year. Due to the extreme pollution in Delhi at the moment I don’t thinks (think) it’s a place to host a badminton tournament.”
“Crossing my fingers that it will be better in the Summer when the World Championships will take place in Delhi. As a result BWF once again has fined me 5000usd,” detailed the tall shuttler from the Scandinavian country.
The ball has now been put firmly in BAI’s and Badminton World Federation (BWF)’s corner, and they need to come up with answers and solutions.
As far as Blichfeldt’s results are concerned, after winning her Round of 32 game, she will face the seventh seed from Thailand, Ratchanok Intanon, in her Round of 16 match on January 15 (Thursday).