YONEX Japan Open 2019: PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth to lead India's campaign

The DAIHATSU YONEX Japan Open 2019 commences on 23rd July and is a part of the HSBC BWF World Tour which comes under the prestigious Super 750. The Indian campaign will be led by PV Sindhu in the women's singles category and Kidambi Srikanth in the men's singles category.

H.S Prannoy, Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma are some of the other notable names in India's campaign in this competition as ace shutter Saina Nehwal is set to miss out from this tournament owing to injuries

Starting on 23rd July, in the men's singles, Sai Praneeth, who is unseeded, will face Japan's Kenta Nishimoto. They have head to head record of 1-1 with their last meeting taking place at the Yonex French Open 2019 where the Indian suffered a 13-21 17-21 defeat to the Japanese.

The mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will contest against the unseeded German duo of Marvin Seidel and Linda Efler while the men's doubles partners Manu Attri and Sumeeth B Reddy will take on Goh Seh Fei and Nur Izzudin of Malaysia.

Starting on 24th July, Pranaav Chopra and Sikki Reddy will face first seeded Chinese pair of Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong. On the same day, the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will take on Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge from England.

24-year old Sameer Verma will contest against Danish Anders Antonsen in the opening round. Their head to head record is 2-1 in Antonsen's favour while their last meeting was at the Korea Open 2019 when Anders Antonsen triumphed 15-21 21-16 21-7.

In an exciting matchup, Kidambi Srikanth, seeded 8th, will face his compatriot H.S Prannoy in the opening round. They have faced each other five times in the past, with Srikanth winning on four occasions, the last of their meetings taking place at the Hong Kong Open 2019 which Srikanth won 18-21, 30-29, 21-18.

Women's doubles partners Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponappa will face Korean's Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong.

In the women's singles draw, Indonesia Open women's singles runner up PV Sindhu, who is seeded 5th will face China's Han Yue. If Sindhu does manage to get through the initial rounds, she could be in line to face home crowd favorite Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals which could prove to be a thrilling rematch of the Indonesian Open finals.