The Indian contingent at the World Badminton Championship fulfilled the fans’ expectations on the first day of the tournament. With Kidambi Srikanth, Sameer Verma and Tanvi Lad tasting wins , the spotlight will now shift to P.V. Sindhu — the modern-day fairy tale of Indian badminton — and the gutsy Ajay Jayaram.
Sindhu, who won silver at the Rio Olympics last year, cut her milk teeth through World Championships early in her career. The 22-year-old won bronze medals in the 2013 and 2014 editions of the event respectively.
Though Sindhu won the India Open Super Series in April this year, she lost the plot at the Australia Open. She will have to balance her positives with the negatives to come out victorious against Kim Hyon-min (South Korea).
On the other hand, Jayaram — who moved from Bengaluru to Mumbai at the start of the year — will be expected to clinch a win against Luka Wraber (Austria). The 29-year-old, who used to train under renowned badminton coachTom John, reached a career high ranking of 13 earlier this year, before a knee injury took him out of action for a few months.
Among the other Indians in fray, Sai Praneeth will take on Wei Nan (Hong Kong); the men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty will face Hiroyuki Endo-Yuta Watanabe (Japan). Arjun MR-Shlok Ramchandran will ply their trade against Liao Min Chun-Cheng Heng (Taiwan).
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa-Sikki Reddy will play Ririn Amelia-Anna Ching Yik Cheong (Indonesia) and Meghana Jakkampudi-Poorvisha S Ram will test their skills against Eefje Muskens-Selena Piek (Netherlands).
Pranaav Jerry Chopra-Sikki Reddy will don the mixed doubles jersey against Ririn Amelia-Anna Ching Yik Cheong (Indonesia).
Comments
SHARE