There will be very little to complain for India’s medal hopefuls at the BWF World Championship in Glasgow with the draw giving them enough breathing space to ease into the tournament.
Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu and last year’s finalist Saina Nehwal have both received a first round bye in the championship to be played at the Emirates Arena between August 21 and 27.
According to the draw released on Wednesday, Nehwal’s first real challenge should come from second seed Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in the pre-quarter finals, while fourth seed Sindhu is likely to face world No 41 Kim Hyo Min of Korea and 13th seed Cheung Nayantara Yi in the second and third round before a potential quarter-final clash against China’s Sun Yu.
In the men’s singles, world No. 8 Kidambi Srikanth should have little trouble reaching the quarters. The Indonesia Superseries Premier and Australia Superseries champion opens his campaign against Russia’s Sergey Sirant and could face Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, seeded 14th in the pre-quarterfinals, before a potential quarter-final clash with the top seed Son Wan Ho.
Draw for first round:
Women’s singles:
PV Sindhu - Bye
Rituparna Das - Airi Mikkela
Saina Nehwal - Bye
Tanvi Lad - Chloe Birch
Men’s singles:
Kidambi Srikanth (8) vs Segey Sirant
Sameer Verma vs Pablo Abian
Sai Praneeth (15) vs Wei Nan
Ajay Jayaram (13) vs Luka Wraber
Women’s doubles:
Jakkampudi Meghana, Poorvisha S Ram vs Eefje Muskens, Selena Piek
Ashwini Ponnappa, Reddy N. Sikki vs Ririn Amelia, Anna Ching Yik Cheong
Sanjana Santosh, Arathi Sara Sunil vs Natalya Voytsekh, Yelyzaveta Zharka
Men’s doubles:
Manu Atri, Reddy B. Sumeeth vs Chung Eui Seok, Kim Dukyoung
Shlok Ramachandran, MR Arjun vs Liao Min Chun, Cheng Heng Su
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty - Bye
Mixed doubles:
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Maneesha K vs Tam Chun Hei, Ng Tsz Yau
Pranaav Jerry Chopra, Sikki Reddy [15] - Bye
Reddy B. Sumeeth, Ashwini Ponnappa vs Sawan Serasinghe, Setyana Mapasa
Yogendran Khrishnan (Malaysia), Prajakta Sawant (India) vs Lu Ching Yao Chiang Kai Hsin
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