India’s dream of breaking an 18-year-old title jinx at the All England badminton championship got tougher after the country’s shuttlers, including P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, were handed a tricky draw.
Sindhu, who had reached the semifinals last year, will open her campaign against South Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun, while Saina takes on Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour in the first round.
Both Sindhu and Saina are currently playing at the Senior National Championships and will head straight to Birmingham from here for the prestigious tournament, starting March 6.
Sindhu will have to be cautious against Hyun, who had defeated her at the Hong Kong Open last year. If she gets past Hyun, the Indian is likely to face third seed Chen Yufei in the quarterfinal.
Former world no. 1 Saina, who had reached the All England final in 2015, made a good start to the new season with a semifinal finish at the Malaysia Masters and a title win at Indonesia.
But the London Olympics bronze medallist is expected to face world no. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarter-finals. Saina had lost her last 11 encounters against Tai, who had an injury-marred end to the last season.
The Indian duo will also fancy their chances after three-time world champion Carolina Marin of Spain has been ruled out due to the knee injury suffered during the Indonesia Masters final.
In men’s singles, K. Srikanth will play Frenchman Brice Leverdez in the opening round while Sameer Verma will start his campaign against Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Among others, B. Sai Praneeth and H.S. Prannoy will face each other in the opening round.
Ashwini Ponnapa & N. Sikki Reddy will meet seventh-seeded Japanese pair Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto, while Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S. Ram will square up against Russia’s Ekaterina Bolotova and Alina Davletova.In men’s doubles, National champion Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy will face China’s Ou Xuanyi and Ren Xiangyu in the first round.
The last time an Indian had won the All England Championship was way back in 2001 by current national coach P. Gopichand, while Prakash Padukone was the first from the country to win the coveted crown in 1980.
