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Eight Indian players will be participating in the 18th edition of the $50,000 Russian Open Grand Prix 2015 which will kick off in the city of Vladivostok from July 21. As of now, none of the Indian shuttlers have managed to seal the title in the last seventeen editions of this tournament.
The performance of the Indians was very bad in the recently concluded Taipei Open Grand Prix Gold tournament with no player able to cross the second round hurdle.
In Men’s singles category 3rd seed and World No. 31 Ajay Jayaram will lead the Indian charge. This 27-year old Chennai-born player has been a bit off color in the last few months. He lost in the third round of U.S Open and was shown the exit doors in the opening round of India Open Superseries. Although he made it to the Quarterfinals of Canada Open Grand Prix but still his performance against the higher ranked opponents has not been quite good.
In the first round of the Russian Open, Jayaram will lock horns with the World No. 198 African shuttler Prakash Vijayanath. World No. 16 Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia is the top seeded player in this category whereas French ace Brice Leverdez is the second seed.
Tanvi Lad is the sole Indian representative in the Women’s singles category. Tanvi, who is ranked 99th in the world has been in a very poor form as she has not even made it to the third round in the last fifteen tournaments in which she has participated. She will play the World No. 128 Russian girl Victoria Slobodjanuk in the opener.
If she manages to get past Victoria in the opener then she could well play the 2nd seed and World ranked 35 Bulgarian Linda Zetchiri.
In Women’s singles qualification, World ranked 325 and under-19 category champion in the inter CBSE schools badminton championships, Lalita Dahiya will play the local ace and World No. 237 Viktoriia Vorobeva in the first qualifier.
Indian hopes in men’s doubles will rely on the young and the extremely talented pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy. The duo, who caused a sensation in the badminton world by reaching the final of U.S Open Grand Prix Gold last month are seeded 3rd in the Russian Open. Ranked 24th in the latest BWF Rankings, Attri and Reddy will take on the World No. 168 Malaysian pair of Zulfaiz Bin Zulkiffli and Zulhemi Zulkiffli.
World No. 11 Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov have been given the top seed and no. 19 Malaysian pair of Shem Goh and Wee Kiong Tan are the second seeds.
Two Indian pairs are playing in the mixed doubles section. Ranked 87 in the world, the pair of Prajakta Sawant and Akshay Dewalkar will play the World No. 54 Russians, Rodion Kargaev and Ekaterina Bolotova whereas the inexperienced pair of Lalita Dahiya and Dinesh Chaudhary will be up against the pair of Mikhail Nesterenko and Daria Radchenko.
There is no Indian participation in the women’s doubles category of the tournament.
