Danish shuttler Mia Blichfeldt lambasts conditions at India Open 2025

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World No. #23, Mia Blichfeldt, suffered a stomach infection during the tournament.
Denmark women’s singles No. #1, Mia Blichfeldt, came down heavily upon the prevailing conditions at the ongoing India Open 2025. She put out an Instagram post after going back home, criticizing the pollution in the city as well as the below-par court conditions, adding a few pictures to substantiate her claim.
“Finally, home after a long and stressful week in India. It’s 2 years in a row now that I get sick during India Open. It’s really hard to accept that many weeks of work and preparing gets wasted because of bad conditions. It’s not fair to anyone that we have to train and play in smog, birds shitting on the courts and dirt everywhere. These conditions are to unhealthy and unacceptable. @bwf.official
“I’m happy that I managed to go on court and win my first round and still play a good match in second round, but I’m fare from satisfied 😔”
The World Number #23 shuttler played her first round at the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium on Tuesday, comprehensively beating compatriot JD Jakobsen 21-9 21-14. Following this, she suffered a stomach illness. Nevertheless, she put on a brave front against World Number #2 Chinese Wang Zhi Yi two days later, before going down 13-21 21-16 8-21.
The 27-year-old had spoken to the BWF media after the match.
“It happened Tuesday evening. It took a lot of mental work (to get on court). It’s really frustrating when you’ve been training to come to these tournaments and then this is one of the things that stops you from performing.”
“That (Tuesday) night was terrible. The only sleep I got was in the morning because I kept throwing up all night. I’m really tired now and my body is really dead. It’s not so nice for me, but I’m happy with the match I pulled yesterday and the outcome today, but I wish I could have gone to court at 100 per cent.”
The shuttler was quite happy with her performance in the second round, against a much superior opponent, considering her fitness.
“Today I felt I dug deep and I did everything I could. I had to adjust my game and I’m actually playing good when I’m not playing high speed all the time. Now I’m looking forward to going back to France and working for the European tour in February and March.”
It is worth noting that New Delhi has been dealing with rising pollution issues in the last few months, since the onset of winter. The Air Quality Index (AQI) has been deemed severe in a number of locations.
Also Read: Top five fastest smashes in women’s badminton history
About Mia Blichfeldt
Mia Blichfeldt is a Danish shuttler, who achieved a career high ranking of number #11 in 2019. She has won a European Games gold and a silver medal. She has also won two European Championships bronze medals. Mia, who had reached the round of 16 at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, has also won four golds in the European Mixed Team Championships and five in the European Women’s Team Championships.
She has four BWF World Tour titles (including three super 300 events) to her name and has also ended up as runner-up thrice.
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