“It is the identical for everybody, so from that perspective it is effective I assume. It offers gamers an opportunity to house out their tournaments, so it’s good total,” Gopichand informed IANS on Friday.
The extension got here after the postponement of the Malaysia Open Tremendous 750 and Singapore Open Tremendous 500 tournaments, each of that are listed as a part of the qualification cycle. Whereas the Malaysia Open will happen from Could 25 to 30, the Singapore match can be held from June 1 to six.
The Olympic qualification interval was earlier scheduled to finish with the Indian Open which is at present slated between Could 11 and 16 in New Delhi.
“I feel all of the gamers would welcome the spacing out of tournaments. It advantages no less than our Indian gamers. It is good that we’ve the time in between tournaments to coach and put together higher,” he additional stated.
The Tokyo Olympics is ready to be held from July 23 to August 8 this yr after being postponed from its authentic dates of July 24 to August 9, 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The announcement of the postponement of the Olympics got here in mid-March, 2020, shortly after which the BWF froze its calendar and rankings, together with ‘Race to Tokyo’ Olympic qualification rankings. Whereas the calendar resumed late final yr, tournaments that may come throughout the Olympic qualification interval begin with the Swiss Open to be held from March 2 to 7.
Requested what Gopichand fabricated from the Indian gamers’ performances on the tournaments to this point, the 47-year-old former All England Open champion stated that it stays too early to attract conclusions.
“Some have been a bit rusty however some additionally put in good performances. It’s a bit early to say something. Wait for one more couple of tournaments earlier than we will get to concrete conclusions,” he stated.
“There’s additionally the truth that Japan and China — two massive nations — didn’t actually take part. It was a depleted discipline and so we won’t learn an excessive amount of into these outcomes but. Neither can we learn a lot into the following two tournaments as a result of we would nonetheless have a depleted discipline,” he additional stated.
Gopichand stated that the gamers and the teaching workers try to not concern themselves with adjustments within the calendar main as much as the Olympics or uncertainty across the Video games itself.
“I feel for all of us it can be crucial we simply take it from the place we had been final yr. We did not have any tournaments final yr. At the least in comparison with that we’ve some to play this time. The gamers can be joyful that they’re in an area the place tournaments are there (for them) to play in,” he stated.
“The uncertainty is there however nonetheless with the vaccination coming round, the opportunity of extra tournaments taking place within the subsequent few months is increased. So I feel much more to be optimistic about than damaging. Simply put together and grasp on, they’ve finished the onerous work of staying optimistic for the final one yr,” he signed off.
