World champion PV Sindhu will begin her Tokyo Olympics campaign against Polikarpova Ksenia of Israel on July 25. Sindhu, who lost to Spain’s Carolina Marin in the iconic final of the 2016 Olympics final, has been put in an easy group J, which has Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi in it.

While Ngan Yi is ranked 34th in the world, Polikarpova is 58th. Sindhu, on the other hands, is seeded sixth in the tournament and is World No. 7

The Tokyo Games organisers on Wednesday issued the schedule of the first two days of competition.

In the men’s singles tie, B Sai Praneeth will begin his Tokyo Olympics against Misha Zilberman of Israel in his opening Group D match on July 24. The Indian shuttler is seeded sixth.

In the singles, the top player from every group will advance to the knock-out round. The world no. 10 men’s doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Ranki Reddy and Chirag Shetty will take on Chinese Taipei duo of Lee Yang and Wng Chi-Lin in their opening Group A match.

India will be sending a 228-strong contingent to the Tokyo Olympics, including 119 athletes, IOA President Narinder Batra said on Tuesday. Out of the 119 athletes, 67 are male and 52 are female participants.

This will be India’s largest ever contingent of athletes at the Olympics. The first contingent, having 90 athletes and officials in total, will leave for Tokyo on July 17.

From India, the sailing team of four athletes and coaches were the first to arrive in Tokyo for the Summer Games.

The boxing and shooting teams will also arrive at Tokyo from Italy and Croatia, respectively, later. Star weightlifter Mirabai Chanu will be reaching Tokyo on July 15 or 16 from the United States.

The 2020 Summer Games, happening under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic has put in place tough and strict COVID protocols, will be held without spectators and will run from July 23 to August 8.