Press Trust of India
Odense (Denmark), Oct 12: World No. 1 and Denmark 2012 title-holder, Saina Nehwal, will lead the Indian challenge at the Denmark Open starting here Tuesday and will share the limelight in the USD 6,50,000 event with the recently-crowned with Dutch Open men’s singles winner, Ajay Jayaram.
The supremely confident Indian ace will look to continue her stupendous performances when she starts her campaign against Busanan Ongbumrungphan of Thailand here Wednesday.
Also brimming with confidence will be Jayaram. The Mumbai-born shuttler will have to go through the qualifiers, where he will take on Germany’s Fabian Roth at the Odense Sports Park, Tuesday.
“Danish Open will offer bigger challenges. I am carrying the positives from this tournament and will give my best next week,” Jayaram had said after winning the men’s singles title at Almere.
Two-time World Champion-ship bronze medallist, PV Sindhu, will also look to put her best foot forward when she takes on Indonesia’s Maria Febe Kusumastuti.
In men’s singles, World No. 5 Kidambi Srikanth, CWG champion Parupalli Kashyap and World No. 16, HS Prannoy will be seen in action. While Kashyap and Prannoy will fight Malaysian Lee Chong Wei and Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen Hao respectively, Srikanth’s opponent is yet to be decided.
The Indian men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who finished runners-up at the Dutch Open, will square off against the England combo of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge. In women’s doubles, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will take on Japanese seventh seed Reika Kakiiwa and Miyuki Maeda.