Difficult path for PV Sindhu and her teammates to win a medal in Badminton Asia Championship
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India’s star players, including PV Sindhu, will face the challenge of some of the world’s best players in their quest for a medal at the Badminton Asia Championships, starting with the qualifiers on Tuesday. With the last-minute withdrawal of world number one and defending champion pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, India’s medal hopes in this continental individual championship now rest on the singles players.
This is the last major tournament to award Olympic qualification ranking points, which has increased its importance and this week will see some tough matches in the tournament. Two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu showed a glimpse of her old form by stretching the match to three games against Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Chen Yufei of China in the French Open quarter-finals. Sindhu’s frustration over her failure to win close matches on her comeback from injury was clearly visible when she slammed her racket on the court after her defeat against Thailand’s Supanida Ketthong at the Spain Masters.
Sindhu will once again get a chance to test herself in a tournament featuring top players like top seed Ahn Se Young, Olympic champion Yufei, Tai Tzu Ying, Akane Yamaguchi and He Bingjiao. Former world champion Sindhu will start her campaign against world number 33 Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia. If she wins this match, she may have to face sixth seed Han Yue of China, whom she had defeated for the fifth time in the Badminton Asia Team Championship in February. In the third round, Sindhu may face Yamaguchi of Japan or Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand. Akarshi Kashyap has to face Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the first round.
In men’s singles, Lakshya Sen has to face a tough challenge from top seed Shi Yuqi in the first round itself. Lakshya, who is almost assured of a place in the Paris Olympics after making the semi-finals of the French Open and All England Championships, would like to take inspiration from his performance in the Asian Games where he defeated the Chinese player in the team championship. Seventh seed HS Prannoy will start his campaign against Liu Guang Zhu and will try to avenge his three defeats against the Chinese player. World number 27 Kidambi Srikanth faces a tough challenge from world number three and second seed Anthony Ginting. Young Indian player Priyanshu Rajawat has to face Malaysia’s Li Ji Jia in the first round.
In the absence of Satwik-Chirag, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila and Krishna Prasad Garga and Sai Pratik will pose a challenge in the men’s doubles. In the women’s doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa will face the Indonesian pair of Fabriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amalia Kahaya Pratiwi while Trisha Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will start their campaign against the fourth seeded Chinese pair of Liu Sheng Xiu and Tan Ning.
Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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