Birmingham: Indian shuttlers, including PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, have got tough draws at the All England Championships, where the country has not won a title in the last 18 years.
Sindhu, who had reached the semifinals here last year, will open her campaign against South Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun while Saina takes on Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour in the first round of World Tour Super 1000 tournament, which begins here March 6.
Both Sindhu and Saina are currently playing at the Senior National Championships and will head straight to Birmingham from here for the prestigious tournament.
Sindhu will have to be cautious against Hyun, who had defeated her at the Hong Kong Open last year. If she gets past Hyun, the Indian is likely to face third seed Chen Yufei in the quarterfinal.
Saina is expected to face World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals if she progresses that far. She has lost her last 11 encounters against Tai, who had an injury-marred end to the last season.
In men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth who is currently recuperating from a ligament injury will take on Frenchman Brice Leverdez in the opening round. He is likely to meet World No.1 Kento Momota in the last eight stage. The seventh seeded Indian had lost to Momota five times last season.
Sameer Verma, who reached the semifinals at World Tour Finals, will start his campaign against former World No.1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Among others, B Sai Praneeth and H S prannoy will face each other in the opening round with the winner likely to take on Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting.
Indian women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnapa and N Sikki Reddy will be meeting seventh-seeded Japanese duo of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto while in men’s doubles, national champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will face China’s Ou Xuanyi and Ren Xiangyu in their first round matches.
PTI
