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A record 26 Indian players will compete at the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships 2022 scheduled to be held from March 16 to 20 in Birmingham, England.
The five-day BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament will be organized by the Badminton World Federation at Arena Birmingham.
For the first time in Indian badminton history, a record 26 shuttlers will participate in the prestigious tournament, regarded as the Wimbledon of badminton.
The All England Open Badminton Championships is the world’s oldest badminton tournament, held annually in England for the last 123 years. With the introduction of the BWF’s latest grading system, it was given Super Series status in 2007. It upgraded to Super Series Premier (World Tour Super 1000) status in 2011.
Despite the pandemic, the All England Open Badminton Championships did not have a break. The organizers successfully managed to conduct the event in 2020 and 2021.
Improved world rankings help Indians get maximum entries in this year’s All England Open
The overall world rankings of Indian players have improved a lot in the last couple of years. This was one of the major reasons why Indian players managed to get so many entries at the All England Open.
Out of the five disciplines, men’s singles saw as many as seven entries in the 32-player main draw. Never in Indian badminton history have seven players found a place in the main draw of the All England Open.
Even in the three doubles categories, we have at least two pairs in each event as they have climbed up in the world rankings.
In addition to the record participation, some Indian players are also in contention for the title.
So far, only two Indians have won the All England Open since it started in 1899. Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) won the men’s singles.
This time around, Indian fans have big hopes from the in-form Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth to break the jinx.
Even in the women’s singles, PV Sindhu can become India’s first women’s singles player to claim the crown.
Fifth seed Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty could also prove to be the dark horses of the tournament. The world No. 8 Indian pair, who skipped the German Open last week to focus on the All England Open, will have to rise to the occasion to finish on the podium.
Senior BWF umpire Uday Sane, who has officiated in several All England Championships before, confirmed that this is the biggest Indian squad to participate in the All England Open.
“This a very good sign for Indian badminton. Earlier, we used to have China’s domination as far as participation is concerned. Now the scenario has changed. The Indian flag is seen prominently in the draw as we have participation in all five disciplines. It also shows that India is among the super powers of badminton in the world,” said Uday Sane.
The veteran official was full of praise for the Badminton Association of India (BAI) and the sports ministry for supporting the game in a big way.
“The policy of giving exposure adopted by the BAI in support of the sports ministry is quite commendable. Thanks to government authorities, many Indian players are seen participating in prestigious tournaments like the All England Championships. Around a few years ago, we only used to participate in singles events, but now so many Indian doubles players are in the top-50 in the world rankings. This augurs well for the future of badminton in the country,” said Sane.
Indian players in action at All England Open Badminton Championships on Wednesday (Round 1)
Men’s singles
Lakshya Sen vs Sourabh Verma
Kidambi Srikanth vs Kantaphon Wangcharoen (Thailand)
B Sai Praneeth vs 1-Viktor Axelsen (Denmark)
Sameer Verma vs Mark Caljouw (Netherlands)
HS Prannoy vs Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Thailand)
Parupalli Kashyap vs 5-Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (Indonesia)
Women’s singles
6-PV Sindhu vs Wang Zhi Yi (China)
Saina Nehwal vs Beatriz Corrales (Spain)
Aakarshi Kashyap vs Michelle Li (Canada)
Men’s doubles
5-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty vs Alexander Dunn-Adam Hall (Scotland)
Krishna Prasad Garaga-Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala vs Mark Lamsfuss-Marvin Seidel (Germany)
MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila vs 2-Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan (Indonesia)
Women’s doubles
Ashwini Ponnappa-N Sikki Reddy vs Rin Iwanaga-Kie Nakanishi (Japan)
Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand Pullela vs Benyapa Aimsaard-Nuntakarn Aimsaard (Thailand)
Jakkampudi Meghana-Poorvisha S Ram vs Supissara Paewsampran-Puttita Supajirakul (Thailand)
Mixed doubles
Ishaan Bhatnagar-Tanisha Crasto vs 5-Praveen Jordan-Melati Daeva Oktavianti (Indonesia)
Venkat Gaurav Prasad-Juhi Dewangan vs Hoo Pang Ron-Cheah Yee See (Malaysia)
