Yuki Bhambri and company may have to beat the best team in the draw, Kazakhstan, to match India’s semifinal entry and bronze medal in the previous edition at the Asian Games that opens on Saturday.
After a bye in the first round, India will play Nepal in the pre-quarterfinals, as per the draw made here on Thursday. In comparison, Kazakhstan — with Andrey Golubev (62), Mikhail Kukushkin (73) and Aleksandr Nedovyesov (99) in its fold — will play Hong Kong in the second round after a bye.
Sanam Singh, Saketh Myneni and Divij Sharan, along with Yuki Bhambri, will have to be at their competitive best to cause a coup in the absence of the country’s leading players Somdev Devvarman, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna, who were compelled to focus on the professional circuit.
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Devvarman had risen to the challenge in the last edition in Guangzhou, China, wining both the singles and doubles gold medals, apart from helping the team to the bronze, when the stars were missing.
Whether someone steps up this time around will be the point of interest.
India’s bronze in the last edition (it went down 2-1 to eventual champion Chinese Taipei) formed the foundation for the Indian challenge in Guangzhou, as the team added the individual singles and doubles gold medals in the men’s event, apart from the mixed doubles silver through Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan.
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Sania did well before bowing to Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan in a three-hour battle in the women’s singles semifinals that fetched her bronze.
In the other half of the current draw, Japan and host Korea figure in the same quarter, and Uzbekistan, Chinese Taipei and Thailand make up the last quarter.
With Sania Mirza busy with Cara Black of Zimbabwe in the doubles draw of the WTA event in Tokyo this week, the Indian women’s challenge will be in the hands of Ankita Raina, Prarthana Thombare, Natasha Palha and Rishika Sunkara.
They will open their campaign against Oman and run into the second-seeded Kazakhstan — spearheaded by the 65th ranked Yaroslava Shvedova — in the quarterfinals of the 16-team draw, in which top-seeded China will have a first round bye.
The tough draw cannot stop the Indian girls from improving the record of Guangzhou, when India was beaten 3-0 in the first round by Indonesia.
In the men’s section, Ze Zhang and Di Wu put China in a strong position, while Japan will have Yuichi Sugita and the young Yoshihito Nishioka, who recently beat Somdev Devvarman in a Challenger final.
Other leading players include Yeu Tzuoo Wang and Yen Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei, Thailand’s lone entry and former Asian Games champion Danai Udomchoke, apart from the finalist of the last edition from Uzbekistan, Denis Istomin, and Farrukh Dustov.
The team seedings: Men: 1. Kazakhstan, 2. Chinese Taipei, 3. Uzbekistan, 4. Japan, 5. China, 6. India, 7. Korea and 8. Thailand.
Women: 1. China, 2. Kazakhstan, 3. Japan and 4. Thailand.