PV Sindhu has a first round bye at the World Championship in Glasgow. (Source: File)
PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal both will start with a first round bye at the BWF World Championship that begins from August 21 in Glasgow, Scotland. The two Olympic medallists for India have been seeded in the competition. Two-time bronze medallist at the World Championship PV Sindhu will open her campaign against the winner of South Korea’s Kim Hyo Min or Egypt’s Hadia Hosny in the second round and is likely to meet China’s Sun Yu for a place in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, 2015 World Championship silver medallist Saina will take on the winner of the match between Switzerland’s Sabrina Jaquet and Ukraine’s Natalya Voytsekh with a potential clash against Korea’s second seed Sung Ji Hyun for a place in the pre-quarterfinals.
In women’s singles, national champion Rituparna Das will meet Finland’s shuttler Airi Mikkela in the first round, while Tanvi Lad will battle it out against England’s Chloe Birch.
Over in the men’s department, Kidambi Srikanth who carries the heavy burden of India’s hopes with two Super Series titles this year and a finalist finish, will open his campaign against Russia’s Sergey Sirant. Srikanth comes into the competition having won Indonesia and Australia Super Series titles in consecutive weeks. And in his previous appearance, he had been beaten by B Sai Praneeth in the final of Singapore Open.
Other Indians in the fray, 15th seed Sai Praneeth will face Hong Kong’s Wei Nan, while Ajay Jayaram will take on Austrian Luka Wraber in the opening round. Sameer Verma, who is making his maiden World Championship appearance after being given a direct entry in the main draw, will square off against Spain’s Pablo Abian.
In the doubles section, Rio Olympians Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will be up against Korean pair of Chung Eui Seok and Kim Dukyoung, while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will face Japanese combo of Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe in the opening round of men’s doubles.
In mixed doubles, 15th seed Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy got a bye and will face either Chinese Taipei’s Lu Ching Yao and Chiang Kai Hsin or Yogendran Khrishnan and Prajakta Sawant.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki are pitted against Indonesia’s Ririn Amelia and Malaysia’s Anna Ching Yik Cheong in the opening round.
(With PTI inputs)
