Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal pulled out of the Singapore Super Series so that she could spend more time in improving her game ahead of the hectic international circuit. Nehwal will next play at the Asian Badminton Championship at Wuhan, China later this month and will focus only on her training as of now.

“Yes, I withdrew from the tournament as I feel I need some more time training to get better. There is improvement in the knee but I think some more training will help at this point,” Nehwal said. “I will play Asia Badminton Championship next. I will also play the Indonesia Super Series and the Sudirman Cup,” she added. Nehwal, who won the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold in January after recovering from a knee injury, was knocked out in the opening round at Malaysia Open last week.

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World No. 2 PV Sindhu will look to make amends after disappointing show in Malaysia where she too was knocked out of the first round. However, a tough draw awaits Sindhu as she faces Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, 2016 All England Open champion and Rio Olympic bronze medallist, in the first round. She may also run into Carolina Marin in the third round.

Meanwhile, national champion Rituparna Das made into the main draw of women’s singles and she will take on Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ya Ching.

In men’s singles, India’s B Sai Praneeth will meet Denmark’s Emil Holst. Sameer Verma will face Hong Kong’s Hu Yun, whom he had beaten at the India Open earlier this month. Ajay Jayaram will meet fifth seeded young Chinese shuttler Shi Yuqi, who had reached the finals at the All England last month. Kidambi Srikanth makes a return as well and will face a qualifier in round one.

In men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will face the third seed pairing of of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda from Japan in the opening round. In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will meet Yin Loo Lim and Yap Cheng Wen.