Saina Nehwal pulls out of China Open

After playing 10 matches (370 minutes) in 12 days in the Denmark and French Opens, a tiered Saina Nehwal has withdrawn from the Li Ning China Open in Shanghai from November 13 to 18.

Though Saina has been seeded third in the Superseries Premier tournament as per the draw released on Tuesday, chief national coach P Gopichand told DNA that Nehwal will not be playing in the tournament. “There is still that niggle in her knee. Saina will take further rest after having played two back-to-back tournaments. She will be back for the Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open in Kowloon from November 20 to 25,” Gopichand said.

Saina will also skip the Macau Open, a Grand Prix Gold tournament, at Macau from November 27 to December 2 and will return to action in the BWF Superseries Finals in Shenzhen, China, (December 12 to 16).

Meanwhile, the China Open will see the return of the second highest ranked Indian woman player, PV Sindhu. The 17-year-old Sindhu, ranked 24, skipped the ongoing World Junior Badminton Championships in Japan due to knee injury. She will meet Japan’s Eriko Hirose, ranked 16, in the first round. “Sindhu is getting better. She will still have two more weeks to recuperate and should be fit in time for the China Open,” Gopichand said.

Also returning to competition is London Games men’s singles quarterfinalist Parupalli Kashyap.