The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Friday confirmed the Malaysia Open 2021 (Super 750) would take place from May 25-30, while the Malaysia Masters (Super 500) had been postponed until further notice.
Both tournaments were scheduled to take place from March 31-April 11, but Movement Control Order (MCO) restrictions in the country meant the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BWF) could not stage both events at such short notice.
The postponement of the Malaysia Open means that shuttlers still have a chance to collect valuable Olympics rankings points before the new cut-off date of June 15.
The Malaysia Open is now set to take place simultaneously with the Sudirman Cup scheduled for May 23-30.
This could mean the national contingent fielding a weakened line-up for the team event, with the shuttlers in contention to make the Olympics cut staying back to compete at the home event.
Last year, the Malaysia Masters was one of five events successfully staged on the BWF World Tour before the pandemic halted all sporting events worldwide.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Open was moved to June, while new dates for the Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open would be revealed soon.
The world body is also working with the International Olympic Committee to update the Tokyo 2020 qualification system, and the final updated regulation will be shared once it is ready.
The upcoming tournaments on the BWF World Tour are the Swiss Open (March 2-7) and All England Open (March 17-21).
Only the Swiss Open offers Olympics points, so the national shuttlers have been given the option of not participating at the All-England.
So far, men’s doubles Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin confirmed they would not compete at the All-England in Birmingham.