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Saina Nehwal
Saina Nehwal, the Indian Badminton ace is likely to run deep into BWF World Championship to be held in London from August 8-14. In a draw held today at BWF Head Quarter, the 21 year old Indian has been handed an easy initial draws though she is likely to face three Chinese opponents to win the Championship.
The Khel Ratna winner has been given a first round bye and would consider herself lucky enough, as she will have enough time to acclimatized to the condition before facing tougher opponents.
The World No. 6 is expected to proceed to the Quarters without much hassle as she will be up against unseeded Adrianti Firdasari of Indonesia in the second round while she is most likely to encounter 14th seed Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong in the pre-quarters.
If everything goes well for the Indian till the pre-quarters, World No. 3 Wang Xin of China is expected to block her way in the Quarters. A tougher challenge awaits Saina if she manages to overcome the World No 3 as she is likely to face World No. 2 Wang Yihan, another Chinese in the Semi-Final.
The positive point for Saina is that she has been beating Chinese opponents lately, which also include World No. 3 Wang Xin in the Sudirman Cup though the Chinese enjoys a 3-1 advantage over Saina. However, Xin has also reached the finals of the 2010 Worlds and All England this year and beating her would be a tough task for the Indians. Moreover Saina has been very inconsistent with her performance this year.
“I think it’s a decent draw. I get some time to settle down there. But I should be careful against my second round opponent Firdasari. I played her about a year back and she has very good strokes. From the quarters it gets tougher,” Saina said.
Parupalli Kashyap and Ajay Jayaram will lead Indian challenge in the men’s singles.
