Sports
Kidambi Srikanth is getting used to leading India's charge at the Superseries tournaments. Every tournament that Indian badminton's latest sensation has entered in this year, he has been seeded. He will do the same at the Singapore Open Superseries starting on Tuesday, more so in the absence of current women's singles world No. 1 Saina Nehwal.
Updated : Sep 29, 2017, 08:54 PM IST
Kidambi Srikanth is getting used to leading India's charge at the Superseries tournaments. Every tournament that Indian badminton's latest sensation has entered in this year, he has been seeded. He will do the same at the Singapore Open Superseries starting on Tuesday, more so in the absence of current women's singles world No. 1 Saina Nehwal.
As published in dna on April 5, Nehwal confirmed her withdrawal from the Singapore Open on Monday when she said: "The last month was hectic. I have played three tournaments and reached the finals in two. I didn't want to overburden myself. It is a very important year so I thought let me train for a week and play at the Badminton Asia Championships (in Wuhan, China, April 21-26)."
Nehwal, who made a first-round exit in last year's Singapore Open, is set to lose her world No. 1 ranking to Li Xuerui of China this week following her semifinal loss last Saturday in the Malaysia Open. But she would get it back the subsequent week as Xuerui is also missing the Singapore Open and will lose last year's points from the same tournament.
In Nehwal's absence, the focus will be on world No. 4 Andhra shuttler Srikanth, who has been seeded third in Singapore and will face Vietnam's Tien Minh Nguyen in the men's singles first round on Wednesday.
His coach Pullela Gopichand told dna from Hyderabad that the current Indian badminton scenario looks "fantastic".
"It is great time for Indian badminton. We have two women in the top 10 (Nehwal and ninth-ranked PV Sindhu), three men in top 20 (Srikanth, 14-HS Prannoy, 17-P Kashyap). It is fantastic. Overall It is looking good.
"We have never won China Superseries (before Saina and Srikanth won in November 2014). Our shuttlers (Saina and Srikanth) won both the titles in the India Open Superseries, In All England, we had a finalist (Saina).
These are good times for Indian badminton. Others like RMV Gurusaidutt, Ajay Jayaram are doing well as well. The women's doubles and men's doubles are also doing well. So, overall, it is a good scenario."
Though Nehwal does not train under Gopichand any more, the former All England winner still follows her progress. Nehwal's current coach U Vimal Kumar pointed out: "Gopichand was quite happy with Saina's progress.
He was quite appreciative of the fact when he watched the All England quarterfinals and semifinals. He was happy. He appreciated that Saina was better."
The week after Srikanth won the India Open, he lost in the second round of the Malaysia Open. Gopichand said that Srikanth will only get better in due course. "Srikanth is young. He is 22 years, which is relatively young for men's singles. He will take a little time to adjust to Sunday winning a tournament, Monday travel, Tuesday practice and Wednesday up for a tight match. It is going to be tight. The physical exertion, the mental push and all those things are important," Gopichand said.
Meanwhile, Sindhu, who was recently awarded the Padma Shri, will also be unavailable for Singapore Open as she has just started her training after a stress injury kept her out of the court last month. The 19-year-old is likely to be back for the Asian Badminton Championships.
—With inputs from PTI
INDIANS AT SINGAPORE OPEN:
ON TUESDAY:
Qualification: Men's singles: Ajay Jayaram vs Daren Liew (MAL), B Sai Praneeth vs Rasmus Fladberg (DEN), RMV Gurusaidutt vs Boonsak Ponsana (THA)
Mixed doubles: Tarun Kona/ N Sikki Reddy vs Jian Liang Lee/ Jia Ying Crystal Wong (SIN)
Round 1: Mixed doubles: Pranaav Jerry Chopra/ Ashwini Ponnappa vs Niclas Nohr/ Sara Thygesen (DEN), Akshay Dewalkar/ Pradnya Gadre vs 8-Michael Fuchs/ Birgit Michels (GER)
ON WEDNESDAY (1st round)
Men's singles: Parupalli Kashyap vs Lee Hyun Il (KOR), HS Prannoy vs Wong Wing Ki Vincent (HKG), 3-K Srikanth vs Tien Minh Nguyen (VIE),
Men's doubles: Rd 1: Pranaav Jerry Chopra/ Akshay Dewalkar vs 1-Lee Yong Dae/ Yoo Yeon Seong (KOR)
Women's singles: Rd 1: PC Thulasi vs Line Kjaersfeldt (DEN)
Women's doubles: Rd 1: Jwala Gutta/ Ashwini Ponnappa vs Go Ah Ra/ Yoo Hae Won (KOR), Pradnya Gadre/ N Sikki Reddy vs Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth/ Rizki Amelia Pradipta (INA), Dhanya Nair/ Mohita Sahdev vs Jongkonphan Kittiharakul/ Rawinda Prajongjai (THA)