Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will start the new year carrying on the momentum from last season when they begin their campaign at the India Open, which returns after being canceled twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There will be a lot of ranking points in the USD 400,000 Super 500 tournament, which is being held in the growing shadow of a raging third wave of the pandemic in the country, with cases rising rapidly, prompted by the new Omicron Edition. ,
Top shuttler B Sai Praneeth and doubles player Dhruv Rawat have already withdrawn after testing positive in the pre-departure test. Some other Indians are waiting for the results of their RT-PCR tests after being positive for the first time and may miss in case of a positive result again.
The real picture about the list of players competing will only emerge after the manager’s meeting later in the day.
However, the ghost of COVID has not deterred top Indian and foreign players from landing in the national capital.
Apart from Sindhu and Srikanth, several top players like world champion Loh Keen Yew, three-time world champion Indonesian duo Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, top Malaysians Ong Yu Sin and Teo E Yi will also attend the event. Which will take place behind closed doors at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here.
All eyes among Indians will be on Sindhu, two-time Olympic medalist, and World Championships silver and bronze medalists Srikkanth and Lakshya Sen, respectively, to deliver goods at the country’s flagship event.
Sindhu continued to perform well last season as she won her second Olympic medal and a silver in the World Tour finals, besides making it to finals at the Swiss Open and a few semifinals, but missing out on a title.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad, whose last title was the 2019 World Championships, will be keen to clinch the India Open title, which she first achieved five years ago in 2017.
Sindhu will open her campaign against compatriot Srikrishna Priya Kudaravalli while Russia’s fifth seed Evgenia Kosetskaya could be her opponent in the last-8 stage.
Two-time champion Saina Nehwal, Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand and up-and-coming Jia Min Yeo of Singapore are the top shuttlers in women’s singles.
London Olympics bronze medalist and fourth seed Nehwal, who endured a rough year battling multiple injuries, is likely to face seventh seed Iris Wang of the United States in the quarterfinals and second seed Ongbamrungphan in the semifinals. Is.
In men’s singles, Srikanth will open his campaign against compatriot Cyril Verma and could take on Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew in the semi-finals, a World Championships final again after a draw in the same half.
In-form Sen will open his campaign against Egypt’s Adham Elgamal and may face compatriot and World Championship quarter-finalist HS Prannoy in the quarter-finals.
Prannoy, who is making a comeback after battling the post-COVID after-effects, is all set to kickstart his challenge against Spaniard Pablo Ebion. Sixth seed Sameer Verma, who suffered a calf muscle injury in Denmark, will look to go into a draw after opening his campaign against elder brother Saurabh.
The tournament has lost some shine with the return of players from France, Russia and Canada and England, who were ruled out after doubles specialist Sean Wendy and coach Nathan Robertson tested positive before leaving for Delhi on Friday.
As part of its COVID-19 protocol, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) has made it mandatory for all players as well as tournament, match officials, BWF and BAI officials, support staff, vendors and others. COVID tests outside the stadium each day before allowing entry inside the venue.
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