Swiss Open: All eyes on Sindhu, Srikanth after Lakshya Sen withdraws

P. V. Sindhu, K. Srikanth and Saina Nehwal will look to make a mark at the Swiss Open Super 300 after failing to reach the quarterfinals at the All England Championships.

P. V. Sindhu lost in the second round in both the German Open and the All England Championships, and will eye a better performance at the Swiss Open.

Lakshya Sen will be missing in action but P. V. Sindhu and K. Srikanth will look to make a mark at the Swiss Open Super 300 which begins here on Tuesday.

Sen, the 20-year-old from Almora, decided to withdraw from the tournament as he felt exhausted after back-to-back runner-up finishes - at the German Open and the All England Championships. While Sen has been sensational in the last two weeks, Sindhu, Srikanth and Saina Nehwal failed to reach the quarterfinals at Birmingham and will eye a better show this week.

While Sindhu and Saina lost in the second round in both the German Open and All England Championships, Srikanth reached the last 8 at Muelheim an der Ruhr.

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Sindhu, seeded second, will take on Denmark's World No. 32 Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt in her opening round, while Saina opens against China's seventh seed Wang Zhi Yi.

Srikanth, who has looked in good touch since his World Championships bronze, will face a qualifier in his men's singles opener. B. Sai Praneeth will meet compatriot H. S. Prannoy in his opening match, while P. Kashyap will square off against a qualifier.

In women's singles, Aakarshi Kashyap has been pitted against Germany's Yvonne Li in the opening round.

Jolly, Gopichand in the spotlight

The third-seeded men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will open against Indonesian pair of Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana. M. R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, and Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala will also be in action in men's doubles.

Following their sensational run at the All England Championships where they made it to the semifinals, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will be expected to perform well. The pair begins against second-seeded Thai pair of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai. Sixth seeded Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy will meet Switzerland's Aline Müller and Jenjira Stadelmann.

In mixed doubles, Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto, and Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan will be in action.