Lakshya Sen (PET) in motion through the eighty fifth Senior Nationals Badminton Championship.
| Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR
With the Paris Olympic qualification at stake, prime Indian shuttlers, together with HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen, will hope to start the brand new season on a bright be aware once they start their marketing campaign on the Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton event right here on Tuesday.
Quite a bit will probably be on the road for Indian shuttlers in the subsequent 4 months as they zoom by means of a busy calender, hoping to get contained in the world’s top-16 by April finish to e-book their berths for the Paris Games.
Frontrunner in the Olympic race, world no. 8 Prannoy, had a sensational season with maiden bronze medals on the World Championships and the Asian Games and a title-run on the Malaysia Masters tremendous 500. He additionally registered a last end on the Australia Open tremendous 500.
The 31-year-old, seeded eighth, will hope to proceed his wealthy vein of type when he opens in opposition to Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, who made a profitable comeback from an damage by profitable the Korea Open in 2023.
All eyes can even be on Lakshya and Kidambi Srikanth as they combat to get inside the highest 16 after enduring contrasting fates final season.
While world no. 16 Sen claimed the Canada Open tremendous 500 earlier than dropping his type in the again finish, Srikanth, ranked 24, has regarded subdued and had simply 4 quarterfinals finishes to point out in 2023.
Things aren’t going to be straightforward for Sen and Srikanth as they face powerful rivals in China’s Weng Hong Yang and sixth seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia respectively in the opening spherical right here.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have regarded in ominous type in the lads’s doubles area. They went on a record-breaking spree to emerge because the best-performing Indian shuttlers in 2023.
In a span of 12 months, they received an Asian Games gold, a brilliant 1000 crown in Indonesia, the Korea Open tremendous 500 and the Swiss Open tremendous 300 earlier than grabbing a a career-best rating of World No.1, albeit for a short time.
The second-seeded pair, which reached the semifinals in 2023, will look to proceed the great run and go deep in the draw once they open in opposition to the Indonesian mixture of Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana.
Brimming with confidence after making three finals in December, the ladies’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto will now look to make the best strikes this season to crack the worldwide prime 16.
The duo is presently positioned twenty first in the Olympic Games Qualification rankings, forward of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who’re on the twenty seventh spot.
Ashwini and Tanisha, who claimed the Guwahati Masters tremendous 100 title, will face USA’s Francesca Corbett and Allison Lee in the opening spherical.
With two-time Olympic medallist P. V. Sindhu recovering from a knee damage, India may have no illustration in ladies’s singles. There are additionally no Indians competing in combined doubles.
Malaysia Open is without doubt one of the 4 BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournaments, having gained the standing final year. All England Championships, China Open and Indonesian Open are the opposite three in the world circuit.
