India SS: All eyes on Indian stalwarts; Saina v Sindhu may clash in QF
INDIA SUPERSERIES kick-starts tomorrow in New Delhi with the main rounds set to begin on Wednesday.
Siri Fort Complex is all set to host the shuttlers and the fans gear for the action but as usual Indians will be under pressure as they will play in front of their home crowd.
The stalwarts from India include Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, Ajay Jayaram. In the doubles India has Pranaav Jerry Chopra/Sikki Reddy etc.
Sindhu seeded 3rd will begin her campaign against Xiaoyu Liang. The Olympic Silver medallist best performance came in 2013 where she ended her campaign in the semis and a quarter-final finish in 2016. Once again, Sindhu will be tested at the SS level.
There are also possibilities of a Sindhu v Saina showdown as they may meet in the quarter-finals. Sindhu tasted win over her compatriot in the 2017 edition of Premier Badminton League but can she do it again, only time will tell.
Saina on the other hand will be disappointed with her All England run and will look for redemption here. She won the title in 2015, she may not be playing at her best in the recent past but expect a cracker of a performance from the champion shuttler. Seeded 6th, she begins her tournament against Chia Hsin Lee from Chinese Taipei.
"The Yonex-Sunrise India Open is very close to my heart, as I became World No. 1 right after winning it in 2015,"
said Saina at the press-conference held in Delhi.
The other WS are Sri Krishna Priya who plays Sung Ji Hyun (2) in round one, Tanvi Lad plays Nozomi Okuhara (7), Rituparna Das v Chiang Mei Hui.
None of the men's singles shuttlers are seeded. Srikanth who won in 2015 will look for some positivity in terms of performance and titles. His first round opponent is yet to be decided.
Prannoy will play Zulfadli Zulkiffli in the opening round; Ajay faces a task as he plays third seed Dane Viktor Axelsen. Sameer Verma faces off Son Wan Ho (4), Sai Praneeth's opponent is yet to decided.
In the men's doubles: Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy who haven't been able to taste much success post Olympics begin their first round against Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi; Francis Alwin/Kona Tarun play Takuto/Yuki; Jishnu Sanyal/Shivam Sharma v Mads Kolding/Mads Conrad-Petersen (7); Anilkumar Raju/Venkat Gaurav Prasad v Mathias Boe/ Carsten Mogensen (3); Vietnam IC winners Satwik/Chirag take on Kim Astrup/Anders Rasmussen in the opening round; opponents of Arjun/Shlok Ramachandran yet to be decided.
Women's doubles has maximum participation from India. Opponents of Ashwini Ponnappa/Sikki yet to be decided and so is the case with Komal Antil/Lalita Dahiya and Gauri Asaji/ Megha Bora.
Polish IC Bronze medal winners Sanjana Santosh/Sara Sunil play Gabriela Stoeva/Stefani Stoeva (6); Aparna Balan/Prajakta Sawant v Chae Yoo Jung/Kim Ha Na; Deepali Gupta/ Pragya Rai; Juhi Dewangan/Saumya Singh v Xiao Min Lin/Wu Fang Chien; Meghana/Poorvisha v Maiken/Sara (8); Sruthi/Haritha v Yuki/Sayaka; Kuhoo Garg/ Ningshi Hazarika v Lauren Smith/Sarah Walker.
Mixed doubles will see Pranaav/Sikki (7) who will want to add one more feather to their list of accolades. They play Hafiz Faizal/Shela Devi Aulia in the first round; Juhi Dewangan/ Venkat Gaurav Prasad v Peng Soon Chan/Liu Ying Goh (4).
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