Srikanth Kidambi who recently won the silver medal at the World Badminton Championship is among 7 players who have tested positive for Covid-19 at the ongoing India Open in New Delhi, the Badminton World Federation confirmed on Thursday.
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Apart from Kidambi, Ashwini Ponappa, Ritika Thakkar, Treesa Jolly, Mithun Manjunath, Simran Singh and Khushi Gupta have also contracted Covid-19. The BWF is a statement further informed that the 7 persons have been withdrawn from the ongoing badminton event. They underwent an RT PCR test on Tuesday. Their doubles partners who were deemed to be the close contacts have also been withdrawn from the badminton event.
The players will not be withdrawn from the main draw and their opponents will be given a walkover to the next round, BWF said. India Open which began on 11th January was not organised for the past 2 years due to pandemic scare.