More trouble for India Open as bird droppings halt match

The $950,000 India Open — the country’s biggest badminton tournament — is getting embroiled in one controversy after the other.

Two days after Danish women’s singles shuttler Mia Blichfeldt complained of birds and bird droppings on the practice courts of the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall, bird excreta halted a men’s singles match of the Super 750 tournament, not once but twice, at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

The bizarre moment occurred when India’s HS Prannoy and former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore were facing each other in a Round 2 match. With Prannoy leading 16-14 in the opening game, play was stopped as both the shuttlers approached the net to look at something that had dropped from the ceiling. “It was bird shit which kind of halted the game,” Prannoy confirmed after the match.