BWF World C’ships, India’s schedule for day 5: Sindhu, Srikanth headline busy day

PV Sindhu’s title defence faces a stern test from Pornpawee Chochuwong when the round of 16 action begins in the BWF World Championships in Huelva on Thursday where there are six Indian matches to look forward to.

Sindhu’s battle against the ninth seed from Thailand will begin proceedings on court 2 (1.30 pm IST). When the draw was done, Sindhu’s potential quarterfinal rematch with Tai Tzu Ying stood out immediately. But arguably Sindhu’s bigger test is the third-round clash against Pornpawee Chochuwong, one of the best players on tour this year.

The Thai, who ended Sindhu’s All England hopes earlier this year, would be raring to go at arguably the biggest event for her this year. Sindhu, too, has been in impressive form as she claimed her second silver medal at the season-ending World Tour Finals after three successive semifinals finishes at French Open, Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open.

Sindhu holds a 4-3 record in their overall Head-to-Head but Chochuwong has won their last two matches this year (All England and then recently the World Tour Finals.)

Men’s singles

He might want to play down his chances and focus on just his game at the moment, but there is no doubting that Srikanth Kidambi is now a marked man in the top half of the men’s singles draw where he is the only seeded player remaining.

He takes on another unseeded Chinese player, after defeating Li Shi Feng in the previous round in a three-game thriller. Lu Guang Zu won’t be an easy opponent by any stretch of imagination as the highly-rated 25-year-old has already defeated Kunlavut Vitidsarn and fourth seed Chou Tien Chen. Srikanth has won their only previous meeting, at the India Open in 2019. The match is at the start of the afternoon session on Court 1 (5 pm IST).

BWF World Championships, day 4 as it happened: HS Prannoy, Ashwini-Sikki reach round of 16

Also in action are HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen. Sen’s match will be against the fairy tale hero of Tokyo 2020 Kevin Cordon from Guatemala. They have not previously met. It will be on Court 3 later in the evening.

Prannoy, after two impressive wins, faces another tough test against the 11th seed Rasmus Gemke. The talented Dane has a 2-0 record against Prannoy, with both meetings happening in 2019. That match is later on Court 1 in the second session.

In doubles, Sindhu’s match will be followed by Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy against the sixth seeds Rawinda Prajongjai and Jongkolphan Kititharakul, against whom the Indians have a 0-6 record. Their four meetings this year have all been straight-game wins for the Thai pair.

One match after that is Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty in action against the ninth seeds Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi. The Malaysian doubles pairs have in general been in good form on tour recently, and this battle promises to be a thriller. The pairs have a 2-2 record in previous meetings, but the Indians have won two of their three matches this year.