Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will lead a strong Indian challenge at the Denmark Open badminton tournament, which will begin in Odense on Tuesday, 16 October.
While Sindhu has been seeded third in the event, World No 11 Saina is unseeded for the tournament.
After a silver at the Asian Games, Sindhu had crashed out in the second round of the Japan Open after a straight game loss to Gao Fangjie. In the China Open, the 23-year-old had suffered a 11-21 21-11 15-21 quarters loss against World No 6 Chen Yufei. Saina, on the other hand, had bagged a bronze at the Asian Games. She had pulled out of the Japan Open and crashed out in the opening round of the China Open.
In the opening round of the women’s singles event, Sindhu will play USA's Beiwen Zhang, and Saina will be up against Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong.
Denmark Open – Day 1
- PV Sindhu vs Beiwen Zhang 1:15pm
- Saina Nehwal vs Cheung Ngan 3:30pm
- Kidambi Srikanth vs Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 10:00pm
- Sameer Verma vs Shi Yuqi 9:30pm
(All timings are tentative)
Men’s Singles
In men's singles competition, Kidambi Srikanth, seeded seventh in the tournament, will be India's best bet. The world no 6 shuttler had given the Korea Open in September a miss after playing back-to-back tournaments in Japan and China.
Srikanth – who is the reigning champion in the men’s singles event – will face Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark in the opening round, while B Sai Praneeth will play Huang Yuxiang of China.
However, it will be a difficult opening encounter for another Indian, Sameer Verma, as he will square off against third seed Shi Yuqi of China.
The other Indian in fray, HS Prannoy also faces a tough first round match as he will be up against sixth seed Son Wan Ho of Korea.
Doubles Events
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who lost his passport at Amsterdam and sought the Indian government's help on Friday, doesn't feature in the men's singles draw.
In men's doubles, the Indian pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will take on local hope Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the opening round.
Ashwini Ponappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will face the Korean combination of Seo Seung Jae and Chae Yujung in the first round of the mixed doubles competition.
Ponappa will pair up with N Sikki Reddy and play the American duo of Ariel Lee and Sydney Lee in the opening round of the women's doubles event.
(With inputs from PTI)
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