Malaysia SSP: Indian shuttlers will look to better their consistency; Saina seeded 3rd
AFTER A DISMAL PERFORMANCE at home for the India Open Super Series, the Indian shuttlers head to Malaysia for the Super Series Premier (SSP).
It was an appalling show by all the men's singles shuttlers at the India SS as they went out of the tournament in the first round itself. In Malaysia, these shuttlers are unseeded.
World No. 10 Kidambi Srikanth will look to forget the past and comeback strong to face Boonsak Ponsana in the first round. His first round exit at last week will bring him down in the rankings. He faces the heat as the date for qualifying for Rio Olympics is soon approaching.
World No. 19 HS Prannoy is up against third seed Japanese shuttler Kento Momota in round one. If Prannoy is able to finish well at the upcoming tournaments, he could very well get a chance to qualify for the Olympics. The first round opponent of Ajay Jayaram is Hu Yun of Hong Kong.
World No. 6 women's singles shuttler, Saina Nehwal is seeded third in the tournament and faces Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand in the first round. The Indian was ousted in the semi-final of the India Open but she has upped her performance and has regained full fitness. It was evident in the tournament.
"I am analysing better. But because of the injury, the match practice is less. When you come out of injury and play against such tough opponents, you feel everything is new. I played two tournaments and I was good but here I was better, You need to play with them more," Saina said to PTI.
PV Sindhu will face He Bingjiao of China in round one. She has lost the rhythm since the Malaysia Masters GPG early this year where she clinched the title. In Malaysia, she will look forward to get back with a good performance.
In the men's doubles contest, the duo of Manu Attri /Sumeeth Reddy and Akshay Dewalkar/Pranaav Jerry Chopra will take part. Attri/Reddy will face Russian duo of Vladimir Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov while Akshay/Pranaav take on third seeds Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan from China in the first round.
In the women's doubles, Indian shuttler Sikki Reddy will be seen playing alongside Indonesian Pia Zebadiah and they will be up against Hsieh Pei Chen/Wu Ti Jung of Taipei in round one.
