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After a few days of fireworks in Hyderabad, the Premier Badminton League (PBL) 2018 caravan has now arrived at Pune. The opening day of the Pune leg already witnessed some dazzling display in a doubleheader with the first tie between Pune 7 Aces and Mumbai Rockets keeping the crowd on the tenterhooks.
With the PBL 2018 matches scheduled to be held in the Maharashtrian city till January 1, a lot more excitement is in store for badminton aficionados. Quite a few fabulous match-ups are lined up for the lovers of the sport.
Here's a look at three epic clashes that could happen at Pune:
#1 PV Sindhu (Hyderabad Hunters) vs Saina Nehwal (North Eastern Warriors)
As much as Indian fans all over the world want this matchup to happen, the question still swirling on everybody's lips is - "Will Saina play?"
Nehwal hasn't taken the court in all 3 of the North Eastern Warriors' outings so far. Saina self-admittedly injured her shin during the Asian Games and had to play a full season with that.
Now, with the new season about to begin in a few days, the former World No. 1 is understandably focussed on recovering fully. 22-year-old Rituparna Das has thus had to take her place and she has done a fine job so far, winning all three of her matches.
With Sindhu being the opponent when the Warriors clash with the Hyderabad Hunters, there is a possibility that Saina could finally be on the court.
And what a match that is going to be, if that happens at all! The two crossed swords for the last time at the Commonwealth Games final, where Nehwal ground out a tight two-game win
Sindhu had her biggest career achievement just a couple of weeks earlier at the BWF World Tour Finals. However, since then, she has had mixed fortunes at the PBL.
With a win over Carolina Marin and two losses against Sung Ji Hyun and Beiwen Zhang, the Rio Olympic silver medallist hasn't been at her imperious best. It will be interesting to see how she responds should she face Saina, a player she has found hard to tackle in their last few meetings.
#2 Lakshya Sen (Pune 7 Aces) vs Kidambi Srikanth (Bengaluru Raptors)
A former junior World No. 1 vs a former World No. 1 clash, with both being from the same country, should attract a lot of attention. Srikanth is the best of the current batch of Indian men's singles shuttlers, perched at No. 8 in the latest world rankings. And the 17-year-old Sen could very much be his successor one day.
Naturally this is one match that should not be missed by any Indian badminton enthusiast.
The teenager has been improving by leaps and bounds. The Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy product had a memorable year that saw him excel at both the junior and the senior level. He won the gold medal at the Asian Junior Championships, the silver medal at the Youth Olympics and the bronze medal at the World Junior Championships. He finished an incredible season on a high by triumphing at the Tata Open India International.
In his PBL debut, he has managed to win one match in three outings while losing a thriller, thereby underlining his immense talent further.
As for Srikanth, he hasn't had the best of seasons on the BWF circuit. The Pullela Gopichand protege was a pale shadow of his 2017 season version, and he couldn't lay his hands on any winner's trophy.
However, he did start showing a lot of resurgence post the Asian Games. Five quarterfinals and one semifinal were enough to signal that he was indeed getting back to form. And the 25-year-old carried that confidence into the PBL 2018 and got a win in the Raptors' only assignment so far.
It will be interesting to see if Sen can indeed spring a surprise in this much-awaited battle of youth vs experience.
#3 Sameer Verma (Mumbai Rockets) vs Son Wan Ho (Awadhe Warriors)
The possible face-off between the former World No. 1 Son Wan Ho and the in-form World No. 12 Sameer Verma has all the ingredients to be a blockbuster. The two met twice on the BWF circuit and split their meetings.
While Sameer won their first clash in 2017, he went down fighting in three games in their next showdown the same year.
Both have had a fantastic end to their respective seasons this year. The Korean brought about an amazing turnaround to his early struggles of the season by winning the Hong Kong Open and the Korea Masters at home. It rightly awarded him a berth at the BWF World Tour Finals, where he made it to the semis.
Sameer was the other losing semi-finalist at this prestigious Year-Ender after title triumphs at the Swiss Open, the Hyderabad International and the Syed Modi International. He has now come to the PBL after his career-best season that also pushed him up to his career-high ranking of No. 12.
Both are unbeaten so far at the PBL 2018, having won the two matches that they were fielded in. And that means one of the streaks will come to an end, which makes this encounter an even more rollicking clash.
