World champion PV Sindhu will look to shrug off her demoralising Swiss Open closing defeat and make the most of a depleted area when she spearheads India’s problem on the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships, starting in Birmingham on Wednesday (March 17).
Sindhu appeared a pale shadow of herself in her defeat in opposition to Carolina Marin, happening with out a lot battle as she struggled to include errors. Carolina, the three-time world champion from Spain, although has pulled out of the distinguished match on account of an damage, taking some shine off of the occasion.
Also lacking in motion would be the Chinese, Koreans and Chinese Taipei shuttlers, who determined to not compete within the Super 1000 occasion as it’s not a part of the Tokyo Olympic qualification interval.
It impacts the standard of the competitors but in addition offers the 19-member Indian contingent a chance to go deep within the draw and recapture the trophy which has been gained by simply two Indians up to now – the legendary Prakash Padukone (1980) and P Gopichand (2001).
While former world primary Saina Nehwal had a runner-up end in 2015, Sindhu’s finest end was a semifinal in 2018 however not one of the different Indian shuttlers have been in a position to go deep within the match until now. Olympic silver medallist Sindhu will once more be one of many prime contenders however Saina is nowhere close to her finest with simply two quarterfinal finishes to point out within the final two years.
Among different Indians, former primary Kidambi Srikanth and younger males’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, at present ranked 10 on this planet, had a superb run in Swiss Open and will look to place their finest foot ahead.
Fifth seed Sindhu will kick off her marketing campaign with a conflict in opposition to Malaysia’s Soniia Cheah and is more likely to face Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi within the quarterfinals, supplied she wins her preliminary rounds. London Olympics bronze medallist Saina has drawn in-form seventh seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in her first spherical and would possibly meet Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour subsequent.
In males’s singles, Srikanth will open in opposition to Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia, whereas world championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth will tackle France’s Toma Junior Popov and is more likely to conflict subsequent with second seed Viktor Axelsen, who has gained the 2 Super 1000 titles in Thailand, and the Swiss Open.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap will open in opposition to world primary Japanese Kento Momota, who’s returning to worldwide circuit after a horrific automobile accident final yr that noticed him bear a watch surgical procedure.
He was additionally laid low after contracting COVID-19. Among others in fray, former top-10 participant HS Prannoy will meet Malaysia’s Daren Liew, to whom he had misplaced on the Toyota Thailand Open in January.
Sameer Verma will probably be up in opposition to Ygor Coelho of Brazil in opening spherical and might face third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark subsequent. Young Lakshya Sen will meet Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen.
In males’s doubles, Satwik and Chirag will open in opposition to Eloi Adam and Julien Maio of France, whereas blended doubles pair of Satwik and Ashwini Ponnappa will sq. off in opposition to Japanese combo of Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo.
Young males’s pairing of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will face Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi.
In girls’s doubles, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will tackle Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard of Thailand. Poorvisha Ram and Meghana J will battle it out in opposition to Danish pair of Alexandra Boje and Mette Poulsen and Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam will meet England’s Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith.
In the blended doubles, Pranav Chopra and N Sikki Reddy will look to go one up in opposition to Max Flynn and Jessica Pugh of England, whereas Dhruv Kapila and Meghana J will face Praveen Jordan and Melati Oktavianti of Indonesia.
