NEW DELHI: The 2028 India Open will be staged in Guwahati, with the Badminton Association of India (BAI) confirming that the tournament will temporarily move out of New Delhi due to Republic Day security arrangements.BAI secretary general Sanjay Mishra said the Super 750 event, scheduled for the last week of January 2028, would clash with heightened security protocols in the national capital around January 26.“The 2028 India Open will be held in the last week of January and due to the tournament dates clashing with Republic Day security arrangements in the National Capital, we felt that only for that year, we should shift the tournament to Guwahati,” Mishra said on Sunday.He added that the relocation is a one-off decision, with the tournament set to return to New Delhi the following year.“It will return to New Delhi in 2029,” he continued.The India Open will be held from February 2–7 next year, shifting from its previous January slot to address player complaints. World No. 4 Anders Antonsen, a four-time World Championships medallist, has missed the India Open for the last three editions, including this year, due to pollution and coped a fine of USD 5,000 for his latest withdrawal.Earlier in the week, Badminton World Federation (BWF) Secretary General Thomas Lund had said the governing body is continuing to examine the scheduling of India Open.“There’s obviously a lot of logistical things when you do these things, and we have obviously been in close dialogue around the whole calendar,” Lund had told reporters.“Coming into 2027, it’s quite a bit of quite short space and for now it hasn’t been possible to totally move around, move out of the first quarter.”He acknowledged that a complete restructuring of the calendar has not yet been possible because of domestic scheduling commitments, but said the BWF has already made improvements and would continue to assess further changes.“Right now it hasn’t been possible due to domestic load to actually totally move around in the calendar, but something we are looking at,” Lund said.“But we have actually looked into a schedule that has been improved and will be improved further down the road.”The India Open has been held at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall in New Delhi in recent editions and is one of the marquee stops on the BWF World Tour calendar. Guwahati, which has previously hosted major badminton events including the BWF World Junior Championships and international team tournaments, will now become the first city outside New Delhi to host the India Open in recent years.
