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India’s Saina Nehwal will launch her campaign in the Li Ning Singapore Open with a tough match against Singapore’s world number 21 Juan Gu on Wednesday.
The Indian will look to exact revenge on Juan, who showed her the exit door in the quarterfinals of the SGC Thailand Open. Subsequently, the world number two suffered a semi-final exit in the Indonesian Open to Germany’s Juliane Schenk.
Saina will be determined to put up a strong showing in the Singapore Open after her disappointments in the Thailand Open and Indonesian Open – both tournaments she won last year.
Save for the recent defeat against Juan, Saina has beaten her four times to enjoy a 4-1 career head-to-head record.
India’s top-ranked men’s singles player Parupalli Kashyap will meet Japan’s world number 16 Takuma Ueda in the first round. Kashyap had beaten Takuma in their two previous meetings.
23rd ranked RMV Gurusaidutt will take on China’s world number 12 Wei Feng Chong in the first round. The Indian has never beaten the Chinese, having lost to him on two occasions.
25th ranked Ajay Jayaram will come up against with 4th seed and world number 6 Kenichi Tago of Japan in the first round. The Indian has beaten him on two previous occasions.
38th ranked Anand Pawar will take on the top-seed and world number 3 Du Pengyu of China in the first round. Both have never played each other before.
42nd ranked Sourabh Varma will meet Hong Kong’s world number 14 Wing Ki Wong in the first round. The Indian had got the better of Wong in their only previous meeting at the 2012 Swiss Open.
44th ranked K Srikanth, fresh from his maiden senior singles career triumph at the Thailand Open, will meet sixth seed and world number four Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Arundhati Pantwane has made it to the main draw after winning her two qualifying round matches. The Indian defeated Singapore’s 88th ranked Xiaoyu Liang 21-14, 21-16 in her second qualifying match.
Earlier, she outlasted Russia’s 193rd ranked Anna Astrakhantseva 21-5, 21-10.
