PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will lead India’s charge as the Indonesia Open Super 1000, one of the biggest BWF World Tour events of the calendar, begins at the Istora Senayan in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Indonesia Open will be the second Super 1000 event of 2022 after All England Open.
But both Sindhu and Lakshya have difficult opening round matches as the Super 1000 tournament returns to the iconic Istoran Senayan in Jakarta after three years.
Sindhu and Lakshya were in action in Jakarta last week at the Indonesia Masters Super 500 event, where they lost their respective quarterfinal matches. While Sindhu was defeated in straight games by Ratchanok Intanon, Lakshya went down in three games against eventually men’s singles finalist Chou Tien Chen.
Indonesia Masters Super 500, QF as it happened: Sindhu, Lakshya go down, India’s challenge ends
And they have be at their best straight away this week. Sindhu and Lakshya have challenging first-round matches at the Indonesia Open Super 1000. Sindhu, seeded seventh, will be up against He Bingjiao. The Chinese world No 9 holds a 9-8 lead in the head-to-head with the Indian star but Sindhu will take confidence from the fact that she won their last three matches. Sindhu’s issues against high tempo left-handed shuttlers is well documented now but the former world champion founds ways past He at Tokyo Olympics (bronze medal match) and the Asian Championships recently.
Her defeat against Intanon last week was a forgettable performance, arguably one of the most pronounced off days she has had on tour, and she would like to recover and go deep.
Lakshya, meanwhile, is set to face compatriot HS Prannoy – both of whom played crucial roles in India’s recent Thomas Cup triumph. The two have played each other twice of the BWF World Tour with Lakshya, seeded eighth this time, winning both those matches. And both those matches happened in 2022, first at the India Open and then at the German Open, two events where Lakshya reached finals eventually (winning the Indian Open).
Pause, rewind, play: When a 19-year-old Saina Nehwal won her first Superseries title in Indonesia
In terms of withdrawals from the main draw, Saina Nehwal in women’s singles and Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy in men’s doubles are the big names not competing at the event.
Notable withdrawals from main draw:
WS: Saina Nehwal
MS: Anders Antonsen (3rd seed), P Kashyap, Wang Tzu Wei
MD: Satwiksairaj-Chirag Shetty (7th seeds), Vishnuvardhan-Krishna Prasad Garaga
WD: Kim So Yeong-Kong Hee Yong (3rd seeds), Gayatri Gopichand-Treesa Jolly
XD: Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet (7th seeds)
A look at the first round matches of Indian players at the Indonesia Open Super 1000:
Sindhu has won two Super 300 titles this year – the Syed Modi International and the Swiss Open. The former world champion will look to gear up for next month’s Commonwealth Games with another good run. If Sindhu crosses the first two rounds, she is likely to face third seeded An Se-young from Korea, who has a 5-0 record against the Indian. The Korean, however had retired mid-way during her match at Indonesia Masters last week.
Only the top 32 players in the world will be competing at the $1,200,000 BWF World Tour event, which will also see the return to the BWF World Tour of three-time former world champion and Rio Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin after her recovery from a knee injury. After her European Championships comeback and brief cameo at Uber Cup, this will be the first major tournament on the tour for the former World No 1.
The women’s singles draw is also fully loaded with Akane Yamaguchi, Tai Tzu Ying, An Seyoung, Chen Yu Fei, Carolina Marin, Nozomi Okuhara, PV Sindhu, Ratchanok Intanon, He Bing Jiao, Pornpawee Chochuwong featuring in the main draw – that’s all of the current top 10.
Meanwhile, World Championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth, who was in fine form at the Thomas Cup, will face France’s Brice Leverdez in his opener. Srikanth is the only other Indian apart from Saina to win this tournament in the past.
A potential second round match against Kento Momota could be a tasty battle and if Lakshya / Prannoy reach the quarters, they could face the winner of that match.
Former Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth is pitted against Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in the first round, with the Dane leading their head-to-head 3-1.
Sameer Verma will also be in action in men’s singles. In the first round, the world No 30 will compete with France’s Thomas Rouxel, whom he leads 2-0 in the head-to-head.
In men’s doubles, the pairs of Manu Attri-B Sumeeth Reddy and MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila will be in action.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, Ashna Roy and Haritha Manazhiyil Harinarayanan, and Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam will be in the fray.
Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto will be the only Indian representatives in the mixed doubles draw.
Indonesia Open will be on Sports18 and Voot Select in India from 15 June onwards.
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