Image Source : PTI PV Sindhu
Indian shuttlers, together with Olympic hopefuls P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, will hope to offer a greater account of themselves at Toyota Thailand Open Super 1000 match, beginning right here on Tuesday, after a lacklustre present final week.
The Indian gamers appeared to battle with their health as none of them might cross the second spherical on the Yonex Thailand Open, the primary occasion of the Asia leg right here.
Barring Kidambi Srikanth, it was the primary match for the entire Indian contingent in practically 10 months.
If Olympic silver medallist Sindhu struggled to maintain tempo along with her first-round opponent Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt, London Games bronze winner Saina merely ran out of steam towards Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan within the second spherical.
Among others, world no 13 B Sai Praneeth regarded a mismatch towards Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen, whereas former world no 1 Srikanth and 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap had been both pressured to withdraw or retire after struggling calf muscle pulls.
World champion Sindhu, a medal contender at Tokyo Games, has been coaching at London for final two months and he or she shall be itching to go deep within the draw when she opens towards world no 12 Busanan, who had outlasted Saina final week.
Saina, who lately recovered from COVID-19 and needed to undergo the ordeal of a false optimistic take a look at final week, will nonetheless have an imposing activity as she faces fourth seed and residential favorite Ratchanok Intanon within the opening spherical.
Saina, who’s at present world no 20, has an 11-5 head-to-head document towards Inthanon, a former world champion however the Indian must play out of her pores and skin towards the Thai star, who had reached the quarterfinals final week.
In the boys’s singles, Praneeth might want to discover his rhythm when he takes on Daren Liew of Malaysia, whereas world no 14 Srikanth, who had withdrawn from the second-round match after complaining of a calf muscle pull, faces Thailand’s Sitthikom Thammasin, an opponent he has crushed twice prior to now.
Kashyap, who had retired within the decider towards Jason Anthony Ho-Shue of Canada final week, will face Denmark’s world no 17 Rasmus Gemke.
HS Prannoy will look to place behind final week’s first-round loss when he takes on the formidable Indonesian Jonatan Christie, who’s seeded sixth.
The Verma brothers may even have their activity minimize out as Sourabh is pitted towards fifth seed Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting within the first spherical, whereas Sameer crosses swords with the speedy Malaysian Lee Zii Jia, seeded eighth.
The solely silver linning from final week was the efficiency of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who regarded spectacular throughout their win over the South Korean mixture of Lee Yong Dae and Kim Gi Jung within the opening spherical.
The duo will open towards fellow Indians Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, whereas Satwik and Ashwini Ponnapa, who had defeated sixth-seeded Indonesians Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emmanuelle Widjaja in an exhilarating match simply days in the past, will tackle Danish pariing of Niclas Nohr and Amalie Magelund.
Ashwini and N Sikki Reddy will meet the German pairing of Linda Efler and Isabel Herttrich of their opener.