Birmingham: A challenging draw stands in the way but India’s top women shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will nonetheless fancy their chances of ending a nearly two-decade old title jinx at the All England Championships starting here Wednesday.
It was Sindhu and Saina’s mentor and current chief national coach P Gopichand, who was the last Indian to win the championship back in 2001.
Only the top 32 in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings qualify for the tournament and out of them, only three Indians have been seeded – the third being Kidambi Srikanth (seeded seventh) in the men’s segment.
Fifth-seeded Olympic and World Championships silver-medallist Sindhu will square off against former World No.2 Sung Ji Hyun of South Korea at the USD one million event.
London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina, seeded eighth, will start her campaign against Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour, an adversary against whom the Indian has a 6-0 head-to-head record.
Sindhu however, has been troubled by Sung Ji but leads 8-6 in their previous 14 encounters. Sung Ji defeated Sindhu twice in three meetings last year and so the Indian will have to be on her guard.
“Each round will be comparatively tough. Each point is important to me. I am playing Sung Ji Hyun in the first round and it would be important for me to focus from then,” said the 23-year-old, who had reached the semifinals in the last edition.
While Sindhu has been in red-hot form last season, claiming silver medals at all major events, former World No. 1 Saina remains the only Indian to come close to winning the prestigious title, finishing runners-up in 2015.
The seasoned Hyderabadi enjoyed a good start to the year, winning the title at the Indonesia Masters in January and getting the better of Sindhu in the national finals to claim the crown. If she wins her first round encounter, she will face either Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt or China’s Cai Yanyan.
However, in the third round the vastly experienced Indian has been drawn to face her nemesis Tai Tzu Ying, against whom she has lost 12 consecutive times.
In the men’s event, Srikanth will take on Frenchman Brice Leverdez in the opening round while an in-form Sameer Verma will start against former World Champion and World No.1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Chief coach Pullela Gopichand has already pinned his hopes on Saina, Sindhu and Srikanth. He has said the trio has what it takes to end the country’s 18-year wait for the prestigious trophy.
“We have had good performances from Saina, Sindhu and Srikanth has also been in good form. I do expect that we will have a good performance at this year’s All England,” Gopichand had said last month.
PTI
