Sindhu aims to defend title, while Srikanth is top seed at Macau Open GPG

WORLD NO.12  PV Sindhu will be looking to defend her title for the second time at the Macau Open GPG beginning November 24, while Kidambi Srikanth has been seeded no. 1.

Sindhu will begin her campaign against unseeded Kim Hyo Min in the first round. The Indian has an upper hand over the Korean as she leads 2-0 in the head-to-head count. Notable performances by Sindhu in the recent past includes being finalist at the Denmark Open, where she defeated Carolina Marin (World No. 1) in the semi-finals. She could not repeat the feat at the Hong Kong Open where she bowed out in the first round, losing to Marin.

Another shuttler in the women's category is Saili Rane who will play sixth seed Minatsu Mitani of Japan. Here the Japanese leads 1-0 in the head-to-head count.

World No. 7 Kidambi Srikanth leads the men's contingent and his first round opponent is Christie Jonatan of Indonesia. This will be the first encounter of the shuttlers at Macau. Srikanth's performance has cost him his ranking dropping two places to seven. This is a good opportunity for the No.1 seed, and it should give him the confidence to do better.

The other shuttlers in the men's category include 15th seed Sai Praneeth, seventh seed HS Prannoy, ninth seed Ajay Jayaram and unseeded Subhankar Dey.

Sai Praneeth who was seen last at the Bitburger Open in Germany has had a decent run and will be up against Fikri Ihsandi Hadmadi of Indonesia who also meet for the first time.

Prannoy will face Sukamta Evert from Indonesia against whom he has a lead of 1-0 in the head-to-head count. World No. 24 Jayaram will play Tam Chun Hei of Hong Kong who also leads 1-0 in the head-to-head count against the latter. While Subhankar Dey will play Lin Guipu from China who will meet for the first time.

Doubles women shuttlers Jwala Gutta and Aswhini Ponnappa are seeded No. 2 and will play Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan. The doubles pair too will meet each other for the first time.