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The road has been a long one and it ends here for a few and stretches a bit more for the rest. The final Superseries event of the year is upon us before the Superseries Finals in Dubai in early December, as Hong Kong prepares itself to host some of the best players in the game starting tomorrow.
The Indian contingent at Kowloon have their task cut right from the start. The biggest contender in the Women's Singles PV Sindhu can consider herself the unluckiest of the lot as she will be up against reigning World champion Carolina Marin in the opening round. What the 20-year-old can take as a positive heading into the contest is the fact that she beat the Spaniard in an epic three-game battle, the last time the two squared off in the semi-finals of the Denmark Open Superseries Premier.
The disappointing news for several Indian fans would be that there would be no Saina Nehwal, who performed so well at the China Open Superseries Premier. The 25-year-old withdrew from the competition on Monday due to severe pain on her leg. Saina’s father, Dr.Harvir Singh, revealed that the shuttler had found it difficult to even walk after the final against Li Xuerui, which she lost in straight games and will return home.
The Men’s Singles contingent have their task cut out as well in the competition with Ajay Jayaram, facing reigning Men’s World champion Chen Long in the first round and World No.5 Kidambi Srikanth will take on China’s Tian Houwei. HS Prannoy will have to wait to find out which qualifier he will face.
The spotlight will also be on Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, who will look to put in a good performance and they will face the pair of Jung Kyung Eun and Shin Seung Chan of Japan in the opening round.
All in all, it promises to be yet another five days of cracking badminton ahead of us and lets hope that at the end of it we are an extremely satisfied bunch of supporters.
