China's Du Yue and Li Yinhui (front) compete during the women's doubles final match against Japan's Fukushima Yuki and Hirota Sayaka at All England Open 2020 badminton tournament in Birmingham, Britain on March 15, 2020. (PHOTO BY TIM IRELAND / XINHUA)

KUALA LUMPUR - Badminton World Rankings are frozen until further notice over the suspension of tournaments due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) said on Tuesday.

"Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the badminton community has experienced an unprecedented suspension to international tournaments from mid-March 2020 to the end of April 2020," BWF said in a statement.

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The freezing of rankings will be backdated to March 17 with the ranking lists issued after the international tournament played - the All England Open, which will also serve as a basis for entry and seeding into the next international tournaments

"At present, it is difficult to predict when the next international tournament will take place with further tournaments also expected to be suspended in May and June," it said.

The freezing of rankings will be backdated to March 17 with the ranking lists issued after the international tournament played - the All England Open, which will also serve as a basis for entry and seeding into the next international tournaments.

A solution is being studied to unfreeze the rankings in a way to avoid an extreme impact on the ranking structure, the badminton world governing body, added.

"However, it is difficult to outline the exact procedure until we have an exact overview of what the international calendar will look like once play resumes and suspended tournaments have been rescheduled," it said.

BWF also said it will also initiate a review process to confirm any impacts on the Olympic qualification system, following the announcement to reschedule the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to July 23 to August 8, 2021.

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"This review process is expected to take several weeks upon which BWF will make a further announcement once all circumstances have been carefully considered," BWF said.

Earlier in response to the new dates for the Tokyo Olympics, BWF said it is aware of the need to reschedule the World Championships 2021 normally staged in August with suitable alternatives being discussed with the host of Spain.