World Badminton Championships | PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth handed easy draw

08/10/2017

Indian players PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, and Kidambi Srikanth have been handed easy draws in the World Badminton Championships which is to be held in Scotland from August 21. Both PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal have gotten first round byes and will not suffer many obstacles to reach the quarter-finals.

Saina Nehwal, who won the silver medal at the last World Championships losing the final to Carolina Marin, has gotten a bye in the first round of this edition of the tournament. In the pre-quarterfinals, she will face second seed Ji Hyun Sung of Korea. Saina had upper-hand against Sung as she maintained a 7-2 head-to-head record. If Saina handles the Korean trouble, then she may face Chinese player He Bingjiao in the quarterfinals.

On the other hand, Sindhu has also got a bye in the first round and in the second round, she will face Kim Hyo Min. She maintained 3-1 record against Min. The Hyderabadi lass may face Sun Yu of China in the quarterfinals, which can be her first big challenge.

"The draw looks good but at the World Championships, you need to give your best in every match. I am working hard for the last one-and-a-half months and want to win the title this time," Sindhu said as reported by TOI.

Tanvi Lad and Rituparna Das are the other Indians in the women's singles main draw.

In the men's draw, top ranked men’s singles shuttler Srikanth can easily reach the quarterfinals. He will start his campaign against Russian player Sergey Sirant and may face world no.1 Son Wan Ho of Korea in the quarters. The Indian defeated Son in their last two encounters and equalling the record for 4-4.

"I got a good draw. I may be playing the world No.1 in the quarters but the earlier rounds of such big events are always tough. I need to be able to play my best from the first round itself," Srikanth said.

While other Indian men’s player Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma will face challenging competition, 15th seeded Praneeth will play against Hong Kong’s Wei Nan in the opening round. In his second round, he may face Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia.

"It not an easy draw for me. I have to give my 100% in every match," Praneeth said.

Sameer will also face challenges from the second round as he is likely to play against Rajiv Ouseph of England. Another Indian player, Ajay Jayaram got an easy draw for the first two rounds and he may face legendary Lin Dan of China in the pre-quarterfinals.

Ashwini Ponnappa/Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy/Pranaav Jerry Chopra raise the hope of the medal in doubles events.