Saina's last outing at this premier global event gifted her with a historic silver medal. 2 years later, the 2015 runner-up comes as the World No. 16 with the spotlight being firmly away from her.
Good afternoon and welcome to Sportskeeda's live coverage of Day 3 of the World Championships. 7 out of the 8 singles shuttlers from the country have progressed into the second round at the World Championships this year. It's time for the last one to take the court. We are talking about none other than Saina Nehwal, whose match is about to begin soon.
Ace shuttler and silver medalist from the 2015 World Championships, Saina Nehwal kicks off her campaign in the women's singles draw against Switzerland's Sabrine Jaquet on Day 3 of the competition. Saina, who is ranked 16th in the world, will look to get off to a solid start against her Swiss opponent, who is ranked in 36th place. The duo has faced off once before in 2012 at the London Olympics preliminary stage, with the Indian recording a comfortable win in what would later turn out to be a historic campaign for her.
In the women's singles, two more shuttlers will be in action - Rituparna Das and Tanvi Lad. Both have their task cut out for them, as they take on 16th seed Kirsty Gilmour and 2nd seed Sung Ji Hyun respectively.
Today's action will also feature India's entire men's singles team in action. Kidambi Srikanth, one of the biggest title favourites, takes on Lukas Corvee of France. Later in the day, Ajay Jayaram, Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma will also be in action.
The women's doubles will also have two Indian pairs in action, namely Sanjana Santosh and Arathi Sara Sunil, along with the duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy. Stay tuned as we bring to you the latest coverage from the action!