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After the fabulous show at last week's Indonesia Open that saw her finishing as the runner-up, PV Sindhu will aim to continue her good run at the Japan Open in Tokyo this week.
With the World Championships scheduled to be held next month, Sindhu will look for every opportunity to hone her skills and test herself against the world's best at this Super 750 tournament.
With this event being organized at the same arena which will host the Tokyo Olympics next year, all the top shuttlers will have a good chance of getting themselves acclimatized to the conditions long before the quadrennial Games begin.
Seeded fifth here, Sindhu has been placed in the same half as the second seed Chen Yufei in a repeat of the Indonesia Open draw. It was a Sindhu blitzkrieg which blew away the reigning All England Open champion in Jakarta and the Indian would look for an encore here.
But before she gets to meet the Chinese in the semi-finals, Sindhu will be presented with the tough task of blunting the ultra aggression of Akane Yamaguchi, something she failed to do in the final of the Indonesia Open. And that is one job she needs to be successful at if she really wants to lift the Japan Open trophy for the first time.
The men's singles draw will witness a blockbuster opening round clash between Pullela Gopichand Academymates Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy. The former has a 4-1 record over his training partner but they bring out the best in each other which is further validated by the fact that four out of their five meetings have gone the distance. Another marathon could definitely be on the cards on Wednesday.
While Sameer Verma needs to tackle World No. 9 and Indonesia Open runner-up Anders Antonsen, Sai Praneeth has already begun his campaign on a thunderous note with a huge upset of the World No. 11 Kenta Nishimoto.
Due to Rio Olympic gold medallist Chen Long getting ousted on the first day of this tournament, Sai's path has opened up and he will fancy his chances of reaching the semi-finals if he can continue playing with confidence.
Here is all you need to know about the Japan Open:
Tournament: Daihatsu Yonex Japan Open 2019
Category: Super 750
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Round: First
Schedule of Indian players' matches on July 24:
(8) Kidambi Srikanth vs HS Prannoy at 6:40 am IST
Sikki Reddy/Pranaav Jerry Chopra vs (1) Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong at 7:30 am IST
Sameer Verma vs Anders Antonsen at 9:30 am IST
Sikki Reddy/Ashwini Ponnappa vs Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong at 12:30 pm IST
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty vs Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge at 12:30 pm IST
(5) PV Sindhu vs Han Yue at 2 pm IST
Where to watch the matches in India?
The Japan Open matches will be telecast live on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 2 HD from July 25.
Live Stream Details and Info for the matches:
Live Stream for the matches is available on hotstar.com.
