A strong Indian contingent led by superstars Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu will be aiming to do well at the Badminton Asia Championships that has kicked off in Wuhan, China on Tuesday, April 25. India starts its campaign on Wednesday at this continental championship where the challenge will be of the highest quality as each nation tries to establish its supremacy in Asia. With China not being at their dominant best anymore, chances have opened up for the rest of the field.
In women's singles, the draw does not have the defending champion Wang Yihan, who has already hung up her racquet. That, however, does not make it easy for any of the contenders as the in-form World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying is the top seed. The Chinese Taipei shuttler, who has won her last five tournaments, is seventh-seeded Saina Nehwal's potential quarter-final opponent and that indeed makes Saina's job pretty tough.
The former World No. 1 starts off things against the World No. 17 Sayaka Sato of Japan after which she is likely to face the 13th ranked Thai Busanan Ongbamrungphan, both of whom Nehwal is expected to defeat.
Bright prospects for PV Sindhu
Fourth seed PV Sindhu, in contrast, has brighter prospects of reaching the final. The World No. 3, who won the only Superseries title that was not won by Tai in 2017, meets the 33rd ranked Dinar Dyah Ayustine of Indonesia in the first round. In the second round, she will be taking on the World No. 15 Aya Ohori of Japan, who won the China Masters last week.
In the quarter-finals, she will lock horns with the eighth-seeded Chinese He Bingjiao, who has been struggling all season. In the semi-finals, Sindhu will cross swords with the second-seeded Akane Yamaguchi, who has failed to reach a final after winning the German Open Grand Prix Gold in February.
Tough draw for Indian men’s singles players
The Indian men’s singles exponents will have to deal with seeded players right from the first round. The India No. 1 Ajay Jayaram, who is now at his career-best 13th, has the fifth-seeded Tian Houwei up first. The latter won the China Masters on Sunday and has naturally come to this tournament with a rich vein of form.
HS Prannoy is the India No. 2 at this event and he will be playing his first match in nearly a month as an injury break had kept him on the sidelines. The World No. 29 begins his campaign against the eighth seed and Hong Kong Open champion NG Ka Long Angus.
In men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy has an uphill task against the fifth seeds Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan of China.
India has two teams in the women’s doubles section. World No. 30 Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy take on the 49th ranked Korean combine of Chae Yoo Jung and Kim So Yeong in their opener while Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram have the difficult barrier of the second seeds Jung Kyung Eun and Shin Seung Chan.
India’s hopes in mixed doubles too do not look good as the country’s sole entry – Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy – have been drawn against the top seeds Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen of China in the first round.
