India Open: Comfortable draw for Saina

File Photo: India’s Saina Nehwal returns to Thailand’s Intanon Ratchanok during their All England Open Badminton Championships women’s singles semifinal on March 9, 2013. (Getty Images)

Home favourite Saina Nehwal has a great opportunity to reclaim the India Open title, as she has a fairly comfortable draw until the quarterfinals.

With most of the top Chinese missing the tournament, this will be Saina’s best chance to claim the India Open after it turned a Superseries. The only Chinese to figure in the women’s singles draw is Jiang Yanjiao, seeded seven. Yanjiao plays a qualifier first, before facing either Arundhati Pantwane (India) or Sapsiree Taerattanachani (Thailand). A quarterfinal against Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand) looks likely.

Saina, who won the India Open in 2010 when it was a GP Gold event, but hasn’t won it after it became a Superseries in 2010, will play Belaetrix Manuputi of Indonesia in the first round. The second round could be against either Yui Hashimoto (Japan) or Xing Aiying (Singapore) – either of whom should pose little trouble for the top seeded Indian.

Interestingly, she might run into younger compatriot PV Sindhu in the quarterfinals, assuming no surprises.

The spotlight is on Saina, and Sindhu will be aware that this could well be her breakthrough moment. The young Indian has yet to find her feet in the Superseries circuit, but her performance at the Siri Fort Stadium last year – where she beat top-class players like Tai Tzu Ying and Sung Ji Hyun, before losing a close encounter to Jiang Yanjiao – should give her plenty of optimism.

Saina’s first big test might come in the semifinals, where she is likely to face Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand – the same girl who surprised her in the semifinals of the All England a few weeks ago.

In the lower half of the draw, the strongest contender is Germany’s Juliane Schenk, who reached the final of the last India Open. After a brilliant 2012, when she emerged as the most consistent threat to the Chinese, Schenk has yet to hit peak form this year, although she is still ranked a respectable No.4. She reached the final of her home German Open, before falling in the third round of both the All England and the Swiss Open. Schenk did have some success against Saina early on, but in recent times the Indian has had the upper hand. Saina leads their head-to-head 8-3, winning each of their last three matches. All three wins have been in straight games.

The others to watch out for in the bottom half of the draw are Korea’s Bae Yeon Ju, Japan’s Minatsu Mitani, who beat Saina in the French Open last year, and Japanese veteran Eriko Hirose, who can never be counted out.

Apart from Saina and Sindhu, the other Indians who have made it to the main draw include Arundhati Pantwane, PC Thulasi and Tanvi Lad. There are four qualifier spots, which are likely to be taken by the Indians, for there are only two non-Indian players among the 16 who will fight in the qualifying rounds.

Players to watch out for:

Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu (India)

Ratchanok Intanon, Nichaon Jindapon, Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Thailand)

Minatsu Mitani, Eriko Hirose (Japan)

Juliane Schenk (Germany)

Jiang Yanjiao (China)