Dirty floors, dirty courts, bird excrement: Blichfeldt criticises unhygienic conditions at India Open

A year after she had publicly criticised conditions at the India Open World Tour 750 event in New Delhi, top Denmark women’s singles player Mia Blichfeldt says that hygiene conditions at the event, being conducted at the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium, still leave a lot to be desired.

“I think the floors are dirty. There is a lot of dirt on the courts. There’s bird excrement. There are birds flying around in the arena,” the 28-year-old ranked 20 in the world rankings said after winning her first round match against Pin-Chian Chiu of Chinese Taipei.

The event had been moved from the smaller-capacity KD Jadhav Indoor stadium to the far larger Indira Gandhi stadium inside the same sports complex in Delhi. Although Blichfeld praised the larger venue as more suitable for the stature of a World Tour 750 event, she felt conditions were still challenging.

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“I think the arena is really good. It’s huge. I like to play in conditions like this, and the hall fits my game really well. I’m happy with the court conditions, but not the health-like conditions,” she told Sportstar.

“I think everyone is doing their best, and they know that it’s something that needs to be better because it’s not good for players to be in a hall where there’s bird excrement on the floor and stuff like that,” Blichfeldt said.

The stadium shift had been necessitated partly as a means of using the India Open as a test event for the BWF World Championships that will be held at the same venue in August this year.

Last year, Blichfeldt, in an Instagram post, had said conditions at the India Open were ‘unacceptable.’

‘It’s two years in a row now that I get sick at the India Open. It’s really hard to accept that many weeks of work and preparation get wasted because of bad conditions,’ she had written.

This time around, Blichfeldt had come prepared. She’s prepackaged food that she is cooking in her hotel room. “For me, as a European player, I think maybe I’m more sensitive also with food and bacteria and that kind of stuff. So this time I’m actually just trying to stay in my room and eat so I don’t get sick.”

Blichfeld is not the only player who has found conditions challenging. Other players have remarked that the Delhi winter made warming up difficult.

Blichfeldt, though, was optimistic that conditions would improve by the time of the World Championships.

“And I think it’s a good test for me also when I come here for the World Championships in August. Maybe the conditions will be better because it’s summer, so the temperature will be warmer.

“To be fair and honest, which I am as a person, I think it can be way better. But again, I’m sure that everyone in the Indian Association and the volunteers do their best. I’m hoping that it’s going to be even better for the World Championships in the summer,” she said.

Published on Jan 13, 2026