The Orleans Masters Badminton 2021 tournament, which comes under the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour, will be the first Super 100 category series to be held this year. The Orleans Masters 2021 tournament is set to kick off at the Palais Des Sports in Orleans, France from March 23 -28.
While the tournament may not be the most lucrative in terms of prize money or ranking points, however, it serves as a major stage in the qualifying race for the Olympics where several Indian shuttlers will be looking forward to gaining some ground in the rankings race after their flop show at the All England Badminton Championships.
From the Indian contingent, Saina Nehwal — who was forced to retire from her first-round match at the All England Open due to an injury –will be eyeing a strong performance at the Orleans Masters event. She is the country’s highest-ranked woman and the only one with a direct entry into the main draw at the event. Nehwal is set to face Malaysia’s Kisona Selvaduray. Aakarshi Kashyap and Ira Sharma have also received entries into the qualifying rounds of the tournament. Meanwhile, PV Sindhu had earlier confirmed that she would not be playing in the tournament.
Apart from these, Kidambi Srikanth, N Sikki Reddy, Ashwini Ponappa and Parupalli Kashyap are a few of the notable names in the 13 other Indian players who will be representing the nation in the Men’s singles category.
Among the women’s doubles fixtures, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will take on Denmark’s Amalie Magelund and Freja Ravn in round one. The main draw will also have Anto Agna and Ashna Roy competing in the tournament. Whereas, in the Men’s doubles matches, M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will face of England’s Matthew Clare and Ethan Van Leeuwen. Men’s doubles pair Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnu Vardhan will fight it out in the qualifying events. The Mixed doubles pairs of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy; Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa will also be a part of the main draw at the event.
Orleans Masters Badminton 2021: Prize money
The total prize money of the tournament will be USD 90,000.
Orleans Masters Badminton 2021: Telecast and live streaming in India
There will be no live telecast of the Orleans Masters 2021 in India. However, the live stream of the event will be available on the official website www.orleansmasters.com and on the French Badminton Federation’s official YouTube channel.
Fans can also check the match schedule here.