Returning to action after a break of more than two months, London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal will look to continue her impressive show when she starts her campaign at the Denmark Open Super Series badminton Championship here from Tuesday.
After becoming the first Indian to win an Olympic medal in badminton at the London Games, Saina took a break and missed the China Masters, Japan Open and the Senior National Championship.
The world No. 4 Indian will now be playing two tournaments in Denmark and France.
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Seeded third, Saina will open her campaign against Korean Yeon Ju Bae in the first round. She is likely to face two-time All England Champion Tine Baun in the quarters, before taking on world No. 1 Yihan Wang in the semifinals if she clears the hurdle.
Saina had beaten Tine but lost to Yihan in the semifinals of the Olympics in August this year.
“I am feeling good, I have been training hard for the last five weeks. I am feeling fresh and hopefully these two tournaments should be good for me,” said Saina before leaving for Denmark.
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In men’s singles, Sourabh Verma will face the uphill task of taming world No. 6 and local hero Peter Gade, while Ajay Jayaram will have an equally hard challenge of putting it across seventh seed Pengyu Du of China.
One half of Commonwealth Games gold medallist pair, Ashwini Ponnappa will pair up with Tarun Kona in the mixed doubles competition and will be up against Indonesian combo of Markis Kido and Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth.
In men’s doubles, Tarun will combine with Arun Vishnu and meet Indonesian pair of Angga Pratama and Ryan Agung Saputra.