P.V. Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, K. Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram will have to contend with a strong Chinese and Korean presence in their passage through the World badminton championship scheduled to begin in Glasgow on August 21. The draw was made in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
Fourth seed Sindhu could face Hong Kong’s Ngyan Yi Cheung, seeded 13, for a place in the quarterfinals where she could run into fifth seed Sun Yu. Sindhu trails 3-4 in head-to-head encounters against the top-ranked Chinese.
Saina’s potential rival in the pre-quarterfinals is second seed Korean Sung Hi Hyun, against whom she holds a 7-2 record. Should the 12th seeded Indian advance, a first-ever clash against China’s He Bingjiao, seeded six, awaits.
Rituparna Das and Tanvi Lad have a tough way ahead. Should Tanvi beat England’s Chole Birch in the opener, she faces Sung Ji Hyun. Rituparna, in the same quarter of the draw as Saina, plays Finland’s Airi Mikkela in the opener. In the second, she could face He Bingjiao.
Among the men, eighth seed Srikanth is drawn to play top seeded Korean Son Wan Ho in the quarterfinals. The top-half also includes the Chinese duo of Shi Yuqi and former World and Olympic champion Lin Dan, seeded four and seven.
Ajay Jayaram, seeded 13, is in the same quarter as two-time defending champion Chen Long, seeded five.
B. Sai Praneeth, seeded 15, plays Hong Kong’s Wei Nan in the opening round and could face Chinese Taipei’s sixth seed Chou Tien Chen in the pre-quarterfinals. The strongest player in Sai’s quarter is Viktor Axelsen, the third seed from Denmark.
Unseeded Sameer Verma plays Spain’s Pablo Abian and a victory should earn him a match against 16th seed Rajiv Ouseph of England. Interestingly, second seeded Malaysian Lee Chong Wei could run into Chen Long for a place in the semifinals.
The doubles draw (Indians, prefix denotes world rankings): Men: 31-Manu Attri & Sumeeth Reddy vs 54-Chung Eui Seok & Kim Dukyong (Korea); 37-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty vs 28-Hiroyuki Endo & Yura Watanabe (Japan); 41-M.R. Arjun & Ramchandran Shlok v 44-Liao Min Chun & Cheng Heng Su (Chinese Taipei).
Women: 25-Ashwini Ponnappa & Sikki Reddy v 51-Ririn Amelia (Indonesia) & Anna Ching Yik Cheong (Malaysia); 41-J. Meghna & Poorvisha Ram v 60-Eefje Muskens & Selena Piek (the Netherlands); 38-Sanjana Santosh & Aarthi Saha Sunil v 102-Natalya Vovtsekh & Yelyzaveta Zharka (Ukraine).
Mixed: 20-Pranav Chopra & Sikki Reddy (seeded 15) bye; 55-Sumeeth Reddy & Ashwini Ponnappa v 50-Sawan Serasinghe & Setyana Mapasa (Australia); 76-Satwiksairaj Ranikireddy & K. Maneesha v 49-Tam Chun Hei & Ng Tsz Yau (Hong Kong) .
