The country’s top commuters, including defending champion Lakshya Sen and two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, will be looking to keep their date with fate as they will be title contenders in at least three of the five events when the India Open Super 750 will start here on Tuesday.
Indian badminton has never looked so good with no less than three players – Sindhu (7), Sen (10), HS Prannoy (8) in the world top 10 in singles and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty at world No. 5 – all coming into the season with great success last year.
While seventh-seeded Sen and fifth-seeded Satwik-Chirag enter the $900,000 event as defending champions, Sindhu and world number 13 Kidambi Srikanth are also former champions.
However, past results will count for little as all of the world’s big badminton stars will compete – some of them in the first round itself – in India’s upgraded version of the showpiece event.
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Sen and Prannoy, two of the most important figures in Indian men’s singles in 2022, will take part in another slugfest in the first round, with the younger of the two hoping to return the favor this time after last week’s first round upset in Kuala Lumpur .
Sindhu’s comeback after a long injury hiatus at the Malaysian Open was marred by longtime Spain star Carolina Marin, who is on her way back after suffering two ACL injuries to both knees in the game. recent years.
This week, it will be Thailand’s Supanida Katethong who will block her way in the first round and Sindhu hopes to regain her sharpness in attack and her strength in defense to avoid any setbacks, after losing to her in the last edition.
The former world champion, who has been out of action with a heel injury since the Commonwealth Games in August, is set to face a potential quarter-final clash against Olympic champion Chen Yufei of China.
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Satwik and Chirag will be brimming with confidence after a Super 1000 semi-final last week as they begin their men’s doubles campaign against Denmark’s Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede, ranked No. 31 in the world.
The Indian duo are likely to face a real test in a potential quarter-final clash against top seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan.
However, no one has a harder task ahead than former world number one Srikanth, who will open against reigning Olympic champion and two-time world champion Viktor Axelsen, who extended his record winning streak by retaining the title of Malaysia on Sunday.
London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal, a former Indian Open winner, will start her campaign against Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt, desperate for a good run to boost her confidence after another injury-ravaged 2022.
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Youngsters Malvika Bansod and Aakarshi Kashyap will have their work cut out for them against Thailand’s World No. 11 Busanan Ongbamrungphan and World No. 24 Beiwen Zhang of the United States in the first round of what will be their first appearance at the Super 750 level.
Among the other Indians, Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun will be out with injury but Krishna Prasad G and Vishnuvardhan Goud P will be hoping for a good start when they face Dutchmen Ruben Jille and Ties Van Der Lecq.
In women’s doubles, All England semi-finalists and Commonwealth Games bronze medalists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela will meet France’s Margot Lambert and Anne Tran in the first round.
While Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam will open against eighth seeds Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan from Malaysia.
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India’s only mixed doubles entry, Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Castro will face Dutchmen Robin Tabeling and Selena Piek.
Among the international stars, Axelsen, who has lost just three matches in 2022, and Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, who has won four titles in 2022, including the All England, World Championships and World Tour Finals, will be the favorites for the crown after their title run in Malaysia.
All eyes will also be on the new generation commuters – new Japanese sensation Kodai Naraoka, Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, former world champion Loh Kean Yew and Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
