Indians were handed a tricky draw for the prestigious All England Open badminton tournament with Saina Nehwal set to face world number one and defending champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the opening round of the $1,000,000 prize money tournament to be played from March 14-18 in Birmingham.
The world number 11, who was an All England finalist in 2015, has failed to beat Tai in their last seven meetings with her latest loss coming in the final of the Indonesia Open earlier this year.
Nehwal’s compatriot and fourth seed PV Sindhu would open her campaign against an relatively unknown Thailand shuttler Pornpawee Chochuwong in the opening round but could face her India Open conqueror Beiwen Zhang in the next.
Among the men’s singles stars, third seed Kidambi Srikanth will open his campaign against Frenchman Brice Leverdez while B Sai Praneeth and HS Prannoy will have to overcome higher ranked opponents to advance beyond the opening round.
Singapore Open champion Sai Praneeth will take on former world number on Son Wan Ho of Korea in the opening round. Prannoy, who is still recovering from the foot infection that saw him struggle in the India Open, is drawn to take on eighth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the opening round.
In the doubles events, Indonesia Open semi-finalists Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will face Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan. If they clear the first hurdle, they are likely to face second seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark in the second round.
First round opponents of Indian players:
Women’s singles: Saina Nehwal vs 1-Tai Tzu Ying (TPE); 4-PV Sindhu vs Pornpawee Chochuwong (THA)
Men’s singles: 3-K Srikanth vs Brice Leverdez (FRA), B Sai Praneeth vs 5-Son Wan Ho (KOR), HS Prannoy vs 8-Chou Tien Chen (TPE)
Women’s doubles: Ashwini Ponnappa/N Sikki Reddy vs 2-Ayaka Takahashi/Misaki Matsutomo (JPN), J Meghana/Poorvisha S Ram vs 5-Shibo Tanaka/Koharu Yonemoto (JPN)
Men’s doubles: Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj vs Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi. B Sumeeth Reddy/Manu Atri vs Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge (ENG)
Mixed doubles: Pranaav Jerry Chopra/Sikki Reddy vs Marvin Emil Seidel/Linda Efler (GER)
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