PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth will headline the Indian singles charge while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and All England revelations Gayatri Gopichand-Treesa Jolly lead in the doubles at the Swiss Open Super 300 that starts on Tuesday in Basel.
After his stellar run of form in the last six months, Lakshya Sen is taking a short break from the tour to recover. In the process, the 20-year-old from Almora will skip the event.
Sen, a World Championship bronze medallst who went on to win the India Open Super 500 and lost in the final of the prestigious All England Open (a Super 1000) event last weekend, is now expected to return to the tour at the Korean Open Super 500 early next month.
“He is not playing the Swiss Open as he is feeling tired. He will be back in Bangalore, get 7-10 days of rest and then go for the Korean Open,” Vimal Kumar, Sen’s mentor, was quoted as saying by PTI.
There will still, however, be a vast star-cast in Basel as far as the Indian contingent is concerned – led by two-time Olympic medallist and 2019 World Championship gold meadllist Sindhu, who takes on Denmark’s Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt in her opening match.
Former World No 1 Saina Nehwal starts her campaign against Frenchwoman Yaelle Hoyaux, while Kidambi Srikanth plays a qualifier in his opening men’s singles match.
In the other singles encounters, Parupalli Kashyap also plays a qualifier and Sameer Verma takes on Lucas Claerbout of France.
B Sai Praneeth and HS Prannoy have been drawn to face each other in the opening round.
Away from the singles field though, there’s a talented new doubles team that has caught the attention with their recent performance in Birmingham.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand surprised the field when they made the women’s doubles semi-finals at the All England. In Switzerland though, they will have a tough opening round matchup against second seeds from Thailand Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.
Sixth seeded Indian women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy play the Swiss team of Aline Muller and Jenjira Stadelmann.
The men’s doubles charge from India will be led by third seeded pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. They however, will face the red-hot All England champion pair from Indonesia, Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana.
MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila also face an Indonesian team, the fourth seeds, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.
The action starts on Tuesday in mixed doubles and singles qualification.
K Sai Pratheek and N Sikki Reddy play Danish pair of Mikkel Mikkelsen and Rikke Søby, and Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan faces eight seeded Germans Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Lohau.
The remaining three Indian teams in the mixed doubles main draw face Malaysian opposition.
Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto play Tang Jie Chen and Yen Wei Peck, Arjun and Jolly play fourth seeds Kian Meng Tan and Pei Jing Lai, while Kapila and Gayatri face sixth seeds Soon Huat Goh and Shevon Jemie Lai.
Here’s the full list of India’s matches at the Swiss Open first round.
Here are the Indian shuttlers in action on Tuesday:
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