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Fresh from winning a medal at the BWF World Championships for the very first time in his career, World No. 15 Sai Praneeth will hope to continue playing with the same spirit and tenacity he showed in Basel a month ago. Sai's achievement was all the more noteworthy considering he ended a 36-year medal drought for India in men's singles at this prestigious tournament.
After that strong showing, Sai will now have to deal with the pressure of expectations as he begins his campaign at the China Open 2019 - the last Super 1000 tournament of the calendar.
The attention will be on him more for the fact that Kidambi Srikanth has pulled out of this tournament due to a knee injury while HS Prannoy is down with a bout of dengue. That has left him as the highest-ranked Indian in the men's singles draw and just one of two Indian men's singles specialists playing in Changzhou this week, with the other being Parupalli Kashyap.
The draw has presented him with an apparently hassle-free opener against World No. 37 Suppanyu Avihingsanon. Sai has a 3-1 head-to-head record over the Thai shuttler with his only loss coming way back in 2012. Their most recent meeting was at the Badminton Asia Championships last year which the Indian won in three gruelling games.
Given the confidence that he gained from his laudable performance at the World Championships, Sai would be expected to come through without much difficulty.
Here is all you need to know about the BWF China Open 2019:
Tournament: VICTOR China Open 2019
Category: BWF Super 1000
Location: Changzhou, China
Schedule: Sai Praneeth vs Suppanyu Avihingsanon first round at 11:30 am local time or 9:00 am IST on Wednesday, September 18, 2019.
Where to watch the matches in India?
The matches will be telecast on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 2 HD.
Live Stream Details and Info for the matches:
China Open 2019 can be streamed live on Hotstar.
