All England Championship | Indian star shuttlers get tough draw to start with

02/13/2019

The Indian badminton players have been given a tricky draw in the upcoming All England Championship 2019 that is scheduled to begin from March 6. India's badminton contingent will aim to break the 18-year-old title jinx in the World Tour Super 1000 tournament in Birmingham next month.

India would definitely look forward to breaking the title jinx at the All England Championship where the shuttlers are taking on some of the best in the game starting next month. Pullela Gopichand was the last player from India to win the prestigious title in 2001 while Prakash Padukone was the first to do so in 1980.

In the women’s singles category, PV Sindhu would kick off her campaign against Sung Ji Hyun from South Korea while Saina Nehwal will go up against Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour in the opening round. Sindhu had reached the semi-finals last year before she was defeated by Hyun at the Hong Kong Open last year.

On the other hand, the former world No 1 Nehwal, had made it to the All England final in 2015 and has been in great form in the current season by qualifying for the semi-finals at the Malaysia Masters and winning the title in Indonesia. She is also expected to meet current World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying from Chinese Taipei in the quarter-final round.

In men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth, who will take on Brice Leverdez from France in the opening round, has been pegged to meet World no. 1 Kento Momota in the quarter-finals. In the previous season, the Indian shuttler from Andhra Pradesh had lost on five occasions to Momota. Sameer Verma has to meet Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in his first-round game, while B Sai Praneeth and HS Prannoy will meet each other in the first round. The winner of the all-Indian might then face Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting.

The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnapa and N Sikki Reddy would be facing the seventh-seeded Japanese duo of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto and Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram will take on Ekaterina Bolotova and Alina Davletova from Russia in their respective first-round matches at the All England Championship.

National men’s doubles champion pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will take on China’s Ou Xuanyi and Ren Xiangyu in the first round.