New Delhi: After a successful campaign at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games, Indian badminton players including PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will be keen to continue their outstanding run at the 2022 BWF World Championships which kicks off in Tokyo from August 22 .
World number 7 Sindhu, who won her first singles gold at the 2022 CWG in Birmingham, will be aiming for her second world title, having won the event in 2019.
However, it will be a difficult task for the two-time Olympic medalist, who could meet reigning Asian champion Wang Zhi Yi of China and An Se Young of Korea, ranked No. 3 in the badminton world rankings, even before the semi-finals.
Sindhu earned a first-round bye and will potentially face Wang Zhi Yi in the third round. An Se Young remains a possible opponent for the quarterfinals if the top seeds unfold.
Meanwhile, former world number 1 Saina Nehwal will return to the field after missing the CWG. The London Olympics bronze medalist, currently ranked 28th, will meet Jong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi in her opener and could meet world No. 6 Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the second round.
Malvika Bansod is the third Indian in the women’s singles table and begins her campaign against Danish world No. 21 Line Christophersen.
Among the men, the Indians Kidambi Srikanth (13th in the standings), Lakshya Sen (10th) and HS Prannoy (18th) are in the same half of the table, and only one of them can reach the semi-finals.
The focus will be on Lakshya, who won men’s singles gold in Birmingham this week. He also earned a first-round bye to the world championships in Tokyo.
Srikanth and Lakshya won the silver and bronze medals respectively at the last edition of the world championships in Spain. World No 5 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia and world No 2 Kento Momota of Japan will be the main threats for the Indian men.
B Sai Praneeth is also on the tour but has a tough first assignment against Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen, the current world number 4 in his own way, according to a report from olympics.com.
Birmingham 2022 gold medalists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will lead India’s men’s doubles charge. Indian pairings Manu Attri/B Sumeeth Reddy, Krishna Prasad Garaga/ Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala and MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila are also in the fray.
On the other hand, Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand and Ashwini Ponnappa/N Sikki Reddy will be India’s top prospects in women’s doubles, where Pooja Dandu/Sanjana Santosh and Ashwini Bhat K/ Shikha Gautam will also be looking to impress.
The mixed doubles section will see two Indian pairs, Ishaan Bhatnagar/Tanisha Crasto and Venkat Gaurav Prasad/Juhi Dewangan, in action. A total of 27 total commuters will be part of the Indian contingent in Japan.
India’s commuters have secured 12 badminton world championship podiums, but Sindhu’s gold in women’s singles in 2019 remains the only gold of the lot.
Read it Recent news et recent news ici
