Prannoy and Sen to lead Indian challenge in China Masters Super 750

Indian badminton players, including returning HS Prannoy, will be hoping to collect the required ranking points in the race to qualify for the Paris Olympics at the China Masters, the final BWF Super 750 tournament of the season, starting here on Tuesday. Making a comeback after a back injury, Prannoy had suffered a defeat in the second round of the Japan Open Super 500 and will once again be the top Indian player in the men’s singles here.

Prannoy will open his campaign against Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen, who had defeated him in their previous encounter in Japan. World number 17 Lakshya Sen and world number 23 Kidambi Srikanth, who are challenging to be in the top 16 by April 28 next year to qualify for the Olympics, will also take part in the competition. Sen will be hoping for a better performance when he takes on seventh seed Shi Yuqi of China after losing to World Championships silver medalist Kodai Naroaka of Japan in the first round last week.

Srikanth, who has made it to the quarter-finals of only four tournaments in the current season, has had to bear the brunt of his mistakes. The former world number one missed the Japan Masters last week and will begin his campaign against defending world champion fourth seed Kunlawat Vitidsarn of Thailand. Priyanshu Rajawat will face Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the first round. The top seeded pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty would like to forget the first round defeat in Japan last week and perform better. The pair will start their campaign against the England pair of Ben Lane and Sean Wendy.

Gayatri Gopichand and Trisha Jolly have withdrawn from the women’s doubles. Rutuparna and Shwetaparna Panda will present the challenge in this category. Akarshi Kashyap is the only Indian in the women’s singles. She will face China’s Zheng Yi Man.

Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.

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