Kowloon (Hong Kong): Playing her fifth sucessive tournament in little over a month, shuttler PV Sindhu will have to battle exhaustion when she leads India’s challenge at the USD 4,00,000 Hong Kong Open Super Series badminton tournament, starting here Tuesday. She did look jaded and exhausted during her tame defeat to Chinese qualifier Gao Fangjie in the China Open last week.
The Indian will have to recover quickly from that defeat and put her best foot forward against a qualifier in the opening round here. If everything goes according to the seedings, Sindhu will meet Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the quarters. Yamaguchi has been in sizzling form this season and clinched the China Open title last week after making her third successive final.
Among others, Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy have also been on the road like Sindhu and they too will look to end the season on a high. While World No.10 Prannoy will face experienced Hong Kong’s Hu Yun in the opening round, Saina, ranked 11th, opens her campaign against Denmark’s Mette Poulsen in women’s singles.
If Saina wins her first round match, she will meet World No. 10 Chen Yufei, who had defeated Sindhu in the opening round at Denmark Open last month.
After opting out of last week’s China Super Series Premier, men’s singles players B Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap will return to action this week with the former taking on second-seed Korean Son Wan Ho.
Kashyap will face Chinese Taipei’s Kan Chao Yu in the qualifiers, while Sourabh Verma will fight it out with Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto.
Press Trust of India
