Korea Open 2019: Preview, where to watch, live stream details, TV schedule and more

After a glorious campaign at the BWF World Championships in Basel in August, Indian shuttlers struggled at the China Open last week. Sai Praneeth was the best-performing Indian as he managed to reach the quarter-finals but the biggest disappointment was the second-round exit of the newly-crowned world champion, PV Sindhu.

The Rio Olympic silver medallist would be keen to erase the memories of that setback and get back to winning ways at the Super 500 Korea Open this week, a tournament which she has fond memories of winning in 2017.

However, a repeat of her success would need copious amounts of focus and determination from the World No. 5 who has the dangerous Beiwen Zhang in her opening round.

Even though Sindhu has won the last three meetings between the two, the American did triumph in three of their eight meetings. A win would give the fifth seed a chance to avenge her last week's defeat to Pornpawee Chochuwong.

In the quarter-finals, Sindhu might come across fourth seed Nozomi Okuhara in a rematch of their 2017 final. The India No. 1 blew away the Japanese at Basel to claim the biggest title of her career just a few weeks ago and it would be interesting to see if she can replicate those heroics here as well.

While second seed Chen Yufei could be her semi-final opponent, it is top seed Akane Yamaguchi who should give Sindhu a reason to worry. Yamaguchi remains unbeaten against Sindhu this year and Indian fans would be eager to see if the Hyderabadi can reverse that trend following her World Championships victory.

Tournament update!⬆️#koreaopen2019 starts from September 24 to 29, 2019.🇮🇳’s ace shuttlers - @Pvsindhu1 , @NSaina, @saiprneeth92 ,@srikidambi, and more will be in action.Good luck guys!💪#IndiaOnTheRise #badminton pic.twitter.com/bzbWj7PHKd

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) September 24, 2019

Saina Nehwal is seeded eighth and faces World No. 24 Kim Ga Eun in the first round. Nehwal has a 2-0 head-to-head record over the young Korean and would hope to continue her mastery over the 21-year-old. She desperately needs a couple of good wins to get back on track after her injury lay-off, and this tournament could just be the start.

In the second round, she will meet the winner of the first-round face-off between Gregoria Mariska Tunjung and Soniia Cheah. It is the quarter-final where things look likely to get tough for the London Olympic bronze medallist for there awaits the second seed Tai Tzu Ying.

Sai Praneeth has been the most consistent out of all the Indian men's singles exponents this year and it culminated in a World Championships bronze - India's first medal in men's singles after a 36-year drought. Sai showed no complacency even after that and carried his form into the China Open to reach the last-eight before bowing out in three games to seventh seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.

This week he kicks off his challenge against the fifth seed Anders Antonsen whom he got the better of in their only meeting so far. Fourth seed Jonatan Christie could be a cause of concern for Sai in the quarters but given the way he dismantled the Indonesian at the World Championships, we can expect another upset from the Indian's racquet.

With both Chou Tien Chen and Chen Long in his half of the draw, Sai needs to be at his flawless best to advance past the semis.

Former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap is the other Indian in the men's singles draw and he is in line to face the legendary Lin Dan after a first-round showdown with qualifier Lu Chia Hung.

Here is all you need to know about the Ḵorea Open:

Tournament: Korea Open 2019

Category: Super 500

Location: Incheon, Korea

Where to watch the matches in India?

The Korea Open matches will be telecast live on Star Sports 3 from Friday, September 27, 2019.

Live Stream Details and Info for the matches:

Live Stream will be available on hotstar.com.