Singapore: The men’s pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will lead the Indian challenge adorned with stars in the Singapore Open Super 750 badminton tournament starting here on Tuesday.
The former number one pair of the world presented a challenge in the All England Championship in March. The pair, however, was removed in the second round due to Chirag’s back injury. He could not even play with the Sudiraman Cup due to Satvik’s health problems.
The Indian pair, which reached the semi -finals of the Malaysia Open and India Open earlier this year, will start their campaign against Malaysia’s Chong Hon Gian and Muhammad Hichael here.
Kidambi Srikanth herself has succeeded in removing disappointment on Indian badminton in the last few months by reaching the final of Malaysia Masters last week.
He broke the pattern of failing to perform well in the tournament of India’s single players for the last few months. Although Srikanth will not compete this week, but he will definitely inspire his compatriot players to do well in the 1 million dollars prize tournament.
Bronze medalist HS Prannoy of the World Championship (2023) saw Srikanth’s brilliant performance in Kuala Lumpur closely. He would like to perform a similar performance while starting his campaign against Denmark’s Rasamsam Gameke. Pranay is trying to get rhythm after battling Chikungunya last year.
Lakshya Sen would like to overcome the suspicion of his fitness by facing Lynn Chun-Ai in the initial stages. The 23 -year -old player of the 2021 World Championship bronze medalist Almora has performed disappointing since the Paris Olympics reached the semi -finals. He has been ruled out since the early stages four times in this session.
Priyanshu Rajawat has also failed to impress in the current session. The 23 -year -old player has failed to cross the initial barrier in six competitions. Kiran George has also not met expectations after reaching the quarter -finals of India Open. He would like to capitalize on his opportunity against Veng Hong Yang of China.
Veteran PV Sindhu is still on the path of return in women’s singles. Despite making many changes in its coaching team, there is no continuity in the performance of the two -time Olympic medalist. This 29 -year -old player suffered a hamstring (muscle stretch) injury during practice in Guwahati in February. He had to be out of the Asia team championship due to this.
Since the return from the injury, he has suffered defeat in the initial stages against players like Thui Linh Guayin, daughter Kusuma Vardani and Kim Gune. Former world champion Sindhu will face Canada’s Wayne You Zhang in the first round.
Other Indian players in the women’s category will have a difficult challenge. The precious trillion will compete with former Olympic champion China’s Chen You Fee while Kashyap will enter the court against the third seed Han You.
Malvika Bansod will face Supanida Katethong in Thailand and Rakshita Ramraj will face South Korea’s Kim Ga Eion. Anupama Upadhyay will take on Sung Shoo Yun of Chinese Taipei, while Unnati Hooda will face second seed Malaysia Masters Champion Wang Jhiy.
India’s top seeded female doubles pair Trisha Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand are expected to perform well in the tournament. The eighth seeded pair will start their campaign against Chang Taipei’s Chang Ching and Yang Ching Tun.
In the mixed doubles, couples of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Krasto and Rohan Kapoor and Rutwika Shivani Gadde will challenge.
