World champion PV Sindhu will beat her open Swiss defeat to beat India’s challenge in the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships starting on Wednesday. Sindhu saw her own shadow in her defeat against Carolina Marin, going down without a fight as she struggled with errors. Spain’s three-time world champion Carolina, however, was ruled out of the prestigious tournament due to injury, which led to her dropping out of the event.
Also missing in action will be the Chinese, Korean and Chinese Taipei shuttlers, who decided not to compete in the Super 1000 event as it is not part of the Tokyo Olympic qualification period.
This affects the quality of the competition, but gives the 19-member Indian squad the opportunity to go deeper into the draw and reclaim the trophy which has been won by just two Indians – Mahan Prakash Padukone (1980) and P. Gopichand (2001).
While former world number one Saina Nehwal was runner-up in 2015, Sindhu’s best finish was the semi-finals in 2018, but none of the other Indian shuttlers have gone deep into the tournament so far.
Olympic silver medalist Sindhu will again be one of the top contenders, but Saina is at her best with just two quarterfinal finishes to show in the last two years.
Among other Indians, former number one Kidambi Srikanth and young men’s doubles pair Satvikasairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, currently ranked 10th in the world, had a good run at the Swiss Open and would like to put their best foot forward.
Fifth seed Sindhu will take on her campaign against Malaysia’s Sonia Chiha and is likely to take on Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the quarter-finals, provided she wins her opening round.
London Olympics bronze medalist Saina drew seventh seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in her first round and could take on Scotland’s Christie Gilmour in the next match.
In the men’s singles, Srikanth will open against Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia, while World Championship bronze medalist B Sai Praneeth will face Toma Jr. Popov of France and is likely to face second seed Victor Jelsen, who won two Super 1000 titles in Thailand Huh. , And Swiss Open.
Commonwealth Games gold medalist Parupalli Kashyap will open against world number one Japanese Kento Momota, who is returning to the international circuit following a horrific car accident last year that caused him to undergo an eye surgery.
Even after contracting COVID-19, they were let down.
Among others on the field, former top-10 player HS Prannoy will meet Malaysia’s Daren LYE, whom he lost at the Toyota Thailand Open in January.
Sameer Verma will take on Yorgo Kolho of Brazil in the opening round and may face third seed Anders Antosen of Denmark. Young Lakshmi Sen will call on Kantafon Wangcharoen of Thailand.
In the men’s doubles, Satvik and Chirag will open against France’s Eloi Adam and Julian Mao, while the mixed doubles pair of Satvik and Ashwini Ponnappa will go up against the Japanese combo of Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo.
The young men’s pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will face Malaysian duo Ong Yew Sin and Tio Ee Yee.
In the women’s doubles, Commonwealth Games bronze medalists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will take on Beniapa Amsard and Nunatkarn Eyamsard of Thailand.
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Purvisha Ram and Meghna J will fight against the Danish duo of Alexandra Boje and Mette Poulsen and Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam will meet England’s Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith.
In the mixed doubles, Pranav Chopra and N Sikki Reddy will go up against Max Flynn and Jessica Pugh of England, while Dhruv Kapila and Meghna J will face Praveen Jordan and Melati Okenti of Indonesia.
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