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A year after being involved in one of the greatest badminton matches of all time, which she went on to lose to Nozomi Okuhara in three gruelling games, PV Sindhu will make her first appearance at this year's World Championships on Day 3 of the event. And the 2017 runner-up could not have asked for an easier opponent to get her campaign under way in Nanjing, China.
She faces the 41st ranked Fitriani Fitriani of Indonesia, a player she has been able to overpower four out of four times. Sindhu would be keen to start a winning streak here and get some much-needed confidence as she is coming off a loss in the final of the Thailand Open.
She is the only women's singles player from India to feature on the Day 3 schedule as Saina Nehwal has already booked her place in Round 3. Apart from the Rio Olympic silver medallist, all the four men's singles stars from the country will be in action.
The World No. 6 Srikanth, who is gunning for his first ever medal from this prestigious event, takes on the 48th ranked Pablo Abian, whom he has never met previously. The 11th seeded HS Prannoy showed glimpses of top form in his first round and would look to continue in the same vein as he meets the 39th ranked Ygor Coelho, in their first ever clash.
B Sai Praneeth was the fortunate recipient of a walkover when the 2017 bronze medallist Son Wan Ho withdrew from the tournament due to a leg injury. He will thus play his first match of the tournament against the unheralded Luis Enrique Penalver, and is expected not to have any hiccup.
Swiss Open champion Sameer Verma has the toughest job out of the four as the five-time world champion Lin Dan waits for him. The two crossed swords at the New Zealand Open in May, where Verma produced some superb fightback in the first game before being completely overwhelmed in the second.
Besides the above mentioned five, there will be three doubles pairs vying for a spot in the pre-quarter-finals in their respective categories.
Here's all the information you need to know
Tournament name: Total BWF World Championships 2018
Category: Grade 1 - Individual Tournaments
Location: Nanjing, China
Date: Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Round: Second round
Broadcast: Live telecast on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 2 HD from 7.30am IST
Livestream: hotstar.com
Live updates: On Sportskeeda
Schedule of Indian players:
Men’s singles
(5) Kidambi Srikanth vs Pablo Abian at 7.30am
(11) HS Prannoy vs Ygor Coelho at 1.10pm
Sai Praneeth vs Luis Enrique Penalver at 3pm
(9) Lin Dan vs Sameer Verma at approx 3.10pm
Women's singles
(3) PV Sindhu vs Fitriani Fitriani at approx 1.45pm
Men's doubles
Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy vs (7) Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko at 3pm
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty vs (8) Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen at approx 4.30pm
Women's doubles
Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy vs (2) Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota at 12.30pm
(All timings in Indian Standard Time)
