Saina Nehwal to play her maiden US Open Grand Prix Gold

06/13/2017

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The Badminton Association of India announced the Indian players for the upcoming international tournaments after a selection committee meeting. 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, Saina Nehwal will lead the Indian Challenge in next month’s US Open where she will participate for the first time.

Saina Nehwal, who has won 23 individual titles across the globe, will lead the Indian challenge at the US Open that will take place from 19th to 23rd July. It will be the first time that the 27-year-old features in the Grand Prix Gold tournament.

On Monday, the Badminton Association of India announced the squads for upcoming international tournaments after a selection committee meeting that was held in Bangalore on Saturday, as reported by The Indian Express.

The selection committee also declared the players who will participate in Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold (27 June - 2 July), Canada Open Grand Prix (11 - 16 July) and the Junior Asian Badminton Championship (22 - 30 July).

Apart from Saina, Rituparna Das, Ruthvika Shivani also found a place in the women’s singles category for the US Open. In the men’s singles section, P Kashyap will lead the Indian Challenge along with Sameer Verma and HS Prannoy.

India is sending the new pair of Ashwini Ponappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy for the mixed doubles category. The duo played together for the first time in the Sudirman Cup last month.

Here is the Indian squad for the following upcoming tournaments:

Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold (June 27th – July 2nd)

Men’s Singles – Sourabh Verma, Harsheel Dani, Siril Verma; Women’s Singles – Sri Krishna Priya, Uttejitha Rao

Canadian Open Grand Prix (July 11th 16th)

Men’s Singles – Sameer Verma, H.S Prannoy, P. Kashyap; Women’s Singles – Rituparna Das, Ruthvika Shivani, Sri Krishna Priya, Sai Uttejitha Rao; Men’s Doubles – Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy;Women’s Doubles – Poorvisha Ram/J Meghana, Kuhoo Garg/Nancy B Hazarika; Mixed Doubles – Sikki Reddy/Pranaav Jerry Chopra

US Open Grand Prix Gold (July 19th -23rd)

Men’s Singles – Sameer Verma, H.S Prannoy, P Kashyap; Women’s Singles – Rituparna Das, Saina Nehwal, Ruthvika Shivani; Men’s Doubles – Manu Attri/Summeth Reddy, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty; Women’s Doubles – Poorvisha Ram/Meghana Jakkampudi, Sikki Reddy/Ashwini Ponnappa; Mixed Doubles – Sikki Reddy/Pranaav Jerry Chopra, Ashiwini Ponnappa/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy

Asian Junior Championships (July 22nd – 30th)

Boy’s Singles – Jaswanth D, Lakshya Sen, Karthikey Gulshan Kumar, Arintap Das, Reserves – Swarnaraj Bora, AryamanTandon,); Girl’s Singles – Aakarshi Kashyap, Prashi Joshi, Ashmita Chalia,Ira Sharma (Reserves – Kanika Kanwal); Boy’s Doubles – Dhruv Kapila/Krishna Prasad, Swarnaraj Bora/Sai Pawan Karri, Krishna Podili/Vishnuvardhan Gaur; Girl’s Doubles – Rituparna Panda /U K Mithula, Ashwini Bhat/Apeksha, Anugraha/Reza Farhath; Mixed Doubles –Tapaswini S Roy/Sanjay Srivastav, Dhruv Kapila/U K Mithula, G. Krishna Prasad/ Partner (decided by coach)

Coaches: Sanjay Mishra, Arvind Bhatt, Anshuman Hazarika, Trupti Murgunde

Manager: Bamang Tago (Arunachal Pradesh) Sukant Das (Sikkim).