PV Sindhu to start her season with Indonesia Masters
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After letting Malaysia Masters a miss, Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu will be kicking off her calendar season with Indonesia Masters as she faces China’s Li Xuerui. Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, on the other hand, will have to go through the qualifiers to progress into the main draw.
Apart from a short cameo in the Premier Badminton League, fans haven’t seen much of Sindhu this year, especially after her brilliant title win at the World Tour last season. However, after skipping Malaysia Masters, Sindhu will participate in the Indonesia Masters that is scheduled to start tomorrow in Jakarta. Â
After winning silver medals in Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World Championship before the gold medal, Sindhu would be hoping to repeat her feat in 2019. According to her draw, she could be facing Olympic champion Carolina Marin at the quarterfinals.Â
Nehwal’s opponent in the qualifier hasn’t yet been finalized but she has started 2019 in a decent manner by reaching the semifinal at Malaysia Masters, which was the first World Tour Super 500 tournament of the season. She could face Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals.
In the men’s category, Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth, H S Prannoy, and Sameer Verma will all be participating. While Srikanth starts his campaign against Malaysia’s Liew Daren, Verma will take on Lin Dan. Praneeth will play against Olympic champion Chen Long while the injury returned Prannoy will take on Taiwan’s Chou Tien Chen.
While the pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will cross swords against Mads Kolding and Niclas Nohr, the women’s duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will face Thailand’s eighth seed Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.
The mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj and Ashwini will take on seventh seeded English duo of Chris Adcock and Gabriella Adcock, while the pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki will face fourth seed Indonesian combo of Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir.
