All England Open 2022 Live: HS Prannoy will be in action tonight. (File)All England Badminton Championships Live Updates: All eyes will be on in-form shuttler Lakshya Sen, double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu and World Championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth as they look to break India’s 21-year title drought at the All England Championships, which begins on Wednesday.
The top Indian players, including Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Srikanth have failed to lift the prestigious trophy with Pullela Gopichand (2001) and Prakash Padukone (1980) still remaining the only two Indians to claim the coveted title.
While Saina had come close by reaching the finals in 2015, it remained elusive for Sindhu, who has otherwise claimed medals in all other big-ticket events such as Olympics, World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
While Sindhu, seeded sixth, will once again be in the reckoning, it will be unseeded Sen who will be in focus this time, given the kind of build-up the 20-year-old had ahead of the Super 1000 event.
Indian action at the All England to kick off with upcoming Men's Doubles pairing of MR Arjun & Dhruv Kapila taking on the iconic Indonesians Hendra Setiawan & Mohammad Ahsan, dubbed the 'Daddies' by fans. The Indonesians enjoy a 1-0 head to head advantage from the only time the two pairs met at the Asian Team Championship just before the pandemic lockdowns hit in 2020. The young Indian pair had gone down in three sets after taking the opener 21-10.
Rankings:
Arjun / Dhruv No. 40
Ahsan / Setiawan No. 2
All eyes will be on in-form shuttler Lakshya Sen, double Olympics medallist PV Sindhu and World Championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth as they look to break India’s 21-year title drought at the All England Championships, which begins tonight. Top Indian players — including Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Srikanth — have failed to lift the prestigious trophy and Pullela Gopichand (2001) and Prakash Padukone (1980) remain the only two from the country to claim the coveted title.