Danish shuttler Mia Blichfeldt slams poor playing conditions at India Open: ‘Smog, birds shitting, dirt everywhere’

Danish shuttler Mia Blichfeldt lashed out at the poor playing conditions at the ongoing India Open 2025 in New Delhi, stating the badminton players had to play and train in smog and with bird shitting on the counts. The world no.23, who was competing in the women’s singles, bowled out in round of 16 against Zhi Yi Wang of China. 

Taking to Instagram, Blichfeldt detailed the problems the shuttlers had to face in the national capital because of pollution. She also revealed that for the second year running she fell ill, thus ruing that her preparation for the tournament went to waste. 

“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,” Blichfeldt wrote in a long Instagram post. 

“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,” he added in the post, which also added pictures of the city and the event.