Jakarta: Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu will resume her quest for glory in the new season, while Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth aim to continue their impressive run when they start their campaign at the Indonesia Masters badminton tournament, starting with qualifiers here Tuesday.
After the engagements of Premier Badminton League (PBL), Sindhu decided to skip last week’s Malaysia Masters and she will begin her campaign against former Olympic gold medallist China’s Li Xuerui Wednesday. The 23-year-old from Hyderabad is expected to clash with reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin at the quarterfinals.
Saina, on the other hand, will take on a qualifier in the opening round and faces the prospect of meeting Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, seeded fourth, at the quarters. Srikanth, who also entered the quarterfinals at Kuala Lumpur last week, plays his first match against Malaysia’s Liew Daren.
With the 2020 Olympic qualification period starting from April, the Indian trio of Sameer Verma, B Sai Praneeth and HS Prannoy will also look to put the best foot forward. Sameer plays legendary Lin Dan while Praneeth faces Olympic champion Chen Long. Prannoy meets Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen in the first round.
In men’s doubles, it will be a clash between two Indian combinations with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty taking on Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy.
Women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will square off against Thailand’s eighth seed Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai, while mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj and Ashwini will pair up to clash with seventh seeded English husband-wife combination of Chris Adcock and Gabriella Adcock.
Another mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki will face fourth seed Indonesian combo of Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir.
