India Open Super 750 Badminton Tournament: Defending champion Lakshya Sen and two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu will be among the title contenders in the India Open Super 750 tournament, starting here on Tuesday. Sindhu (7), Sen (10) and H S Prannoy (8) have three players in the top 10 in the world rankings, while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are fifth in the doubles rankings. Seventh seed Sen and fifth seed Satwik Chirag will enter here as defending champions. Sindhu and 13th-ranked Kidambi Srikanth are former champions in the $900,000 prize money tournament.
However, past results will not matter as the top players of world badminton will be facing each other. Sen and Prannoy, who were the mainstays of Indian men’s singles badminton last year, will once again clash in the first round. Sen was beaten by Prannoy in the first round of the Malaysia Open last week. Sindhu also made a comeback in the Malaysia Open after a long time after recovering from injury but was beaten in the first round by Spain’s Carolina Marin. This time she will face Thailand’s Supanida Kethong, to whom she had lost in the previous season, in the first round.
Sindhu has not played since Commonwealth Games
Former world champion Sindhu has not played since the Commonwealth Games in August due to a heel injury. She could face Olympic champion Chen Yufei of China in the quarterfinals. Satwik and Chirag had reached the semi-finals in Kuala Lumpur last week. They will face Denmark’s Jeppe Bey and Lasse Mohede in the men’s doubles first round. They are likely to clash with top seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in the quarterfinals. Former world number one Srikanth faces a tough challenge in the form of two-time world champion and reigning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the first round. Axelsen has already won the title in Malaysia last week.
Saina Nehwal will face Mia Blichfeldt
London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal will take on Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in the first round. Due to injury, Saina could not perform well last year. Youngsters Malvika Bansod and Aakarshi Kashyap will take on world No. 11 Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand and world No. 24 Beiwen Zhang of the United States respectively in the first round.
Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun are out due to injury.
Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun are out with injuries but Krishna Prasad G and Vishnuvardhan Goud will face Netherlands’ Ruben Zilley and Tise van der Leck in the first round. In women’s doubles, Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Trisa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will face French pair of Margot Lambert and Anne Tran. In mixed doubles, Tanisha Castro and Ishaan Bhatnagar will play Robin Tabling and Selena Piek of the Netherlands.
Credit: bharat.republicworld.com /