India Open: Battle between youth and experience in qualifying draw

Kashyap Parupalli, pictured here during the All England Open Badminton Championships, has asserted himself as the country’s best player over the last couple of years. (Getty Images)

The attention at the India Open Superseries will be on Saina Nehwal, P Kashyap and PV Sindhu, but a bunch of other Indian players will be hoping to steal the limelight at Siri Fort Stadium.

The qualifying rounds that begin on Tuesday will give an indication of the depth of the country’s badminton talent. Indian badminton has transitioned – a new generation has established itself. At the head of the new pack is P Kashyap, who has asserted himself as the country’s best player over the last couple of years. The likes of Anup Sridhar, Chetan Anand and Arvind Bhat in singles are trying to reassert themselves, and it will be interesting to see whether they can recapture their past glories at the biggest event in India. The three are in the qualifying draw, and they will face some searching questions from younger players.

The men’s singles in particular will be intensely fought, and the four who qualify to the main draw will give us an idea of the transition that has happened. Twelve of the 16 in the men’s singles qualifying draw are from India, and it will assume the contours of mini-national tournament. Among those expecting to qualify will be the top seed (in qualifying) K Srikanth, who has a difficult first round lined up against Sameer Verma. Verma, younger brother of Sourabh, has had some injury problems over the last few months, and the India Open will give him an opportunity to test himself.

Srikanth and Verma find themselves in the same quarter as Abhimanyu Singh and Chetan Anand. The expected clash between Srikanth and Chetan Anand in the second round could be fascinating – will the wily Chetan prove that his skills can measure up to the youngster, or will Srikanth prove that Chetan’s time is past? Of course, that situation might not even materialise if Sameer Verma and Abhimanyu Singh get the better of their opponents in the first round.

The third quarter has Pisit Poodchalat (Thailand), Arvind Bhat, Aditya Prakash (both India) and Iskandar Zulkarnain (Malaysia). Arvind Bhat hasn’t done badly in recent months – he reached the quarterfinals of the New Zealand Open last week – and will fancy his chances of making the main draw.

The last quarter looks just as interesting. Mohit Kamat and Anup Sridhar – both from Tom John’s Academy – are drawn to play each other in the first round, while HS Prannoy takes on Vladimir Malkov of Russia. Both matches could be too tough to call.

The women’s singles qualifying draws aren’t as competitive as the men’s, but there’s plenty of talent on view. The top seed is Sayali Gokhale, who has spent the last few months in the Swedish league, while also playing some of the smaller tournaments on the European circuit. Another player worth looking out for would be Ruthvika Shivani, the youngster from Gopichand’s academy, who has performed well on the junior national circuit.

The men’s doubles qualifying draw however bears a lean look, since most of the better Indian pairs have made it to the main draw.