A 19-member Indian contingent will look to battle it out in the All England Championship and bring the prestigious title back home. In the singles, all eyes will be on PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, and in the doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be aiming to make a dent in the tournament.
Sindhu, after a humbling Swiss Open final defeat to Spain’s Carolina Marin, will look to take advantage of an empty field and get her hands on the elusive title.
Players, contingent missing:
Three-time world champion from Spain, Carolina, has pulled out from the tournament due to an injury.
The contingents of Chinese, Koreans and Chinese Taipei have also pulled out of the Super 1000 event as it is not part of the Tokyo Olympic qualification period.
Till now, only the legendary Prakash Padukone has won the title in 1980 and P Gopichand in 2001.
While Saina Nehwal, the former world number one, had a runner-up finish in 2015, Sindhu’s best finish was a semifinal in 2018. No other player has been able to reach that far in the tourney.
Among other Indians, former number one Kidambi Srikanth and young men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, currently ranked 10 in the world.
Sindhu will kick off her campaign with a clash against Malaysia’s Soniia Cheah and is likely to face Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals.
Saina has drawn in-form seventh seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in her first round and might meet Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour next. Both of them are tricky ties for the Indian.
In men’s singles, Srikanth will open against Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia, while world championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth will take on France’s Toma Junior Popov and is likely to clash next with second seed Viktor Axelsen, who has won the two Super 1000 titles in Thailand, and the Swiss Open.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap will start his All England campaign against Japanese Kento Momota, who is returning to international circuit after a horrific car accident last year that saw him undergo an eye surgery.
Among others in fray, former top-10 player HS Prannoy will meet Malaysia’s Daren Liew, to whom he had lost at the Toyota Thailand Open in January.
Sameer Verma will be up against Ygor Coelho of Brazil in opening round and may face third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark next.
Young Lakshya Sen will meet Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen.
In men’s doubles, Satwik and Chirag will open against Eloi Adam and Julien Maio of France, while mixed doubles pair of Satwik and Ashwini Ponnappa will square off against Japanese combo of Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo.
Young men’s pairing of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will face Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi.
In women’s doubles, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will take on Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard of Thailand.
Poorvisha Ram and Meghana J will fight it out against Danish pair of Alexandra Boje and Mette Poulsen and Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam will meet England’s Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith.
In the mixed doubles, Pranav Chopra and N Sikki Reddy will look to go one up against Max Flynn and Jessica Pugh of England, while Dhruv Kapila and Meghana J will face Praveen Jordan and Melati Oktavianti of Indonesia.
