After a disappointing week, Indians expect shuttlers Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu and K. Srikanth to bring laurels as they begin their campaign at the Rio Olympics on Thursday.
It is widely expected that Saina will upgrade her bronze medal this time despite her indifferent form in the past two years. She won the silver at the All England and World Championship, clinched the India Open and coveted China Premier Super Series title and became the World No. 1. According Badminton World Federation, she is now ranked No.5.
Saina started her Olympic journey as an 18-year-old by reaching the quarterfinals at the Beijing Games.
Two-time World Championship bronze medallist P.V. Sindhu will also look to make her Olympic debut count. She didn't have a good run-up to the Olympics but with her ability to shock big players like Li Xuerui, Yihang Wang and Carolina Marin, fans expect her to finish at the podium.
In men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth will carry India’s hopes as he battles in a highly-competitive field comprising Lee Chong Wei, Chen Long, Lin Dan and Jan O Jorgensen, among others.
Srikanth has already proved his mettle by clinching the 2014 China Open and 2015 India Open to reach World No. 3 in June.
Among other Indians at the Rio Games, 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist women’s doubles pairs of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa and men’s doubles combo of Manu Attri and Sumeth Reddy will be keen to prove themselves.
The 2011 World Championship bronze medalists, Jwala and Ashwini, who finished at the group stage despite winning two matches out of three, will have a tough task, as they will face top seeds, Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo in the group stages, besides the Dutch pair Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek and Thailand’s Supajirakul Puttita and Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
Manu and Sumeeth too have a difficult draw with second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia, world number five Chai Biao and Hong Wei of China and Japanese combo of Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa in Group B.
With the much expected Abhinav Bindra, Indian women archers, Gagan Narang, Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu out of the Rio Olympics, Indians pin their hopes on the badminton stars to clinch two or three medals.
To add to the curiosity of the fans, women archers like Deepika Kumari and Bombalya Devi Laishram have entered the pre-quarterfinal of the individual archery competition. And golfers Anirban Lahiri and SSP Chawrasia would battle their opponents as well as weather and course conditions on day one of the stroke-play golf competition that gets under way on Thursday.
With the Indian men's doubles Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna failing to enthuse the fans, World No.1 doubles player Sania Mirza is pairing with Rohan Bopanna and they begin their campaign against Samantha Stosur and Jimmy Peers.
Indian boxers Manoj Kumar and Vikas Krishnan made their presence felt in their respective categories and Shiva Thapa will open his campaign against Cuba’s R Ramirez on Thursday.
India has a very good chance in wrestling also as the competition is yet to begin.
