Lakshya Sen, Ashwini Ponnappa to spearhead strong Indian challenge at Denmark Masters Badminton tournament

Lakshya Sen and Ashwini Ponnappa will spearhead the strong Indian challenge at the Victor Denmark Masters International Challenge Badminton tournament.

The first tournament post Tokyo Olympics will be played at Esbjerg in Denmark from August 5 to 8. Many Indian players, including Lakshya, have sent their entries to gain valuable ranking points.

The Danish tourney will also mark the resumption of the Badminton World Federation’s international calendar which was halted due to the raging pandemic.

World No. 23 Lakshya Sen will be the top seed in the men’s singles. Teenager Lakshya will be looking forward to living up to his top billing in the four-day competition. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, Lakshya was in brilliant form which helped him break into the world’s top-25 rankings.

Nineteen-year-old Lakshya is a trainee at Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bengaluru.

Top seed Lakshya will try hard to win the title, says father DK Sen

Lakshya’s father and coach DK Sen is optimistic about his son’s strong performance in Denmark early next month.

“Lakshya has been training hard and should do well. He has been given the top seeding on the basis of his current world ranking. I just hope he lives up to his form and reputation. He will try his best to win the title,” said DK Sen. He is one of the coaches at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy.

Subhankar Dey will be the fourth seed in the men’s singles. The world No. 53, Subhankar will try to regain his old touch in Denmark.

World No. 61 Ajay Jayaram will be seeded sixth. After a not so good last couple of seasons, Ajay Jayaram will be looking forward to the international circuit once again.

Chirag Sen, Siril Varma, Kiran George, Siddharth Pratap Singh and Alap Mishra are the other Indian players in the main draw.

In the qualifying stages, C Rahul Yadav, Kevin Arokia Walter, Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, Priyanshu Rajawat, Anirudh Janardhanan and world No. 2 in the Under-19 boys singles Varun Kapur will be there.

In the women’s singles, Malvika Bansod will be the eleventh seed. Malvika Bansod, winner of the Lithuanian Open last month, has jumped to her career-best world ranking of 115.

India No. 1 Aakarshi Kashyap, who has now slipped to world No. 117, will be the thirteenth seed.

Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli and Ira Sharma will also be in the main draw. Fast rising teenager Tanya Hemanth of Bengaluru will have to go through the qualifying stages to make it to the main draw.

Junior world No. 2 Samiya Imad Farooqui and Kriti Bharadwaj will also play the qualifiers.

Tarun Kona and Shivam Sharma will be the ninth seeds in the men's doubles section. Utkarsh Arora and Saurabh Sharma will be the sixteenth seeds.

Runners-up at the Orleans Masters Badminton tournament earlier this year Krishna Prasad and Vishnu Vardhan Goud will be the dark horses of the tournament.

Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy will be second seed in the women’s doubles

Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy will be the second seeds in the women’s doubles. The world No. 27 pair, who missed the Tokyo Olympics qualification, will be itching to get going.

Ashwini Ponnappa (left) and N Sikki Reddy will be the second seeds in the women's doubles

Ashwini Ponnappa will also be seeded in the mixed doubles. Ashwini Ponnappa will play with new partner Dhruv Rawat. Ashwini is playing with Dhruv Rawat of Uttarakhand because her regular partner Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will be competing in the Tokyo Olympics.

Another Indian pair of Shivam Sharma and Poorvisha S Ram will have to go through the qualifying rounds in the mixed doubles.