Tricky draw for Indians at home India Open; Lakshya, Sindhu face tough openers

Indian shuttlers face challenging opening-round matches at the India Open Super 750 in New Delhi. Lakshya Sen meets Ayush Shetty in an all-Indian clash, while P V Sindhu opens against Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyen.

Hyderabad: Indian badminton players were handed a tricky draw on the home turf as 2022 champion Lakshya Sen was pitted in an all-Indian battle against the up and coming Ayush Shetty while former world champion PV Sindhu will face Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyen in the opening round of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super 750 badminton tournament to be played at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi from January 13-18.

The India Open, one of the most prestigious tournament on the HSBC BWF World Tour, will be moving from the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium to a much bigger multi-purpose hall within the Indira Gandhi Stadium Complex. The players will also get to understand and test the conditions as this will also be the venue for the BWF World Championships to be held in August later this year.

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And if the Indian contingent were hoping for a slightly easier opening round, then they were clearly not granted that wish.
From the Indian perspective, Lakshya facing former world junior bronze medallist Ayush Shetty would mean that only three of the four Indian men’s singles in fray would have a chance to make it to the second round. And whoever manages to go through in this all-Indian clash is likely to face fourth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei or Kenta Nishimoto of Japan
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Among the other Indian singles players, former world no. 1 Kidambi Srikanth will be up against 2024 Taipei’s Thomas Cup bronze medal winning team member and world no. 12 Lin Chun-Yi with a possible second round clash against Christo Popov, who created history last month by becoming the first French player to win the BWF World Tour Finals men’s singles title. H S Prannoy, who got into the main draw after the withdrawal of Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, will open his campaign against last edition finalist Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong.

In the women’s singles, former world champion PV Sindhu will be up against Nguyen against whom the Indian had lost both their last two encounters. Nguyen, ranked 22 in the world, is one of the most improved player on the circuit last year and if she manages to get through the Vietnamese then second seed Wang Zhi Yi or her Chinese teammate Gao Fang Jie awaits her in the second round.

Malvika Bansod, returning after a long injury break and playing in the tournament with her protected ranking, will face Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei in the opening round.

In the doubles category, former champions Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy have been handed a relatively easy opener against USA’s Chen Zhi Yi and Presley Smith. Their first real test may come in the quarter-finals where they could meet Chinese’s eighth seeds Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi.

Two-time All-England semifinalists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will be up against Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn and Sukitta Suwachai of Thailand with a possible second round against Chinese seventh seeds Li Yi Jing and Luo Xu Min.

In the other interesting opening round clash, top seed An Se Young will face former world champion Nozomi Okuhara while third seed Akane Yamaguchi will be up against compatriot Riko Gunji.