A lengthy European swing is coming to a close on the BWF World Tour as action moved to France for the Orleans Masters Super 300 event that began on Tuesday.
With the Asian Championships around the corner, and Olympic qualification cycle not far away, several of the top Indian shuttlers are not in action in Orleans this week, meaning there are opportunities for some of the younger athletes to make their mark at the Super 300 level.
Saina Nehwal, too, is in action after missing the earlier events on the European swing that started with the German Open back in March. She was a semifinalist here a couple of years back.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won the Swiss Open title recently, had since pulled out of the Spain Masters and have done the same for Orleans Masters too, where they were entered as top seeds in men’s doubles. The likes of PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and Srikanth Kidambi didn’t enter the event.
And so the attention will be on the younger lot, especially in singles.
The Orleans Masters has been a good event in recent times for Indians, with Mithun Manjunath reaching the men’s singles final here in 2022 while Krishna Prasad and Vishnuvardhan were in the men’s doubles final a year earlier in 2021.
This time around, the men’s singles and women’s singles main draws have five Indians each in action.
While Nehwal starts off against Neslihan Yigit of Turkey, her potential second-round opponent is the top seed Carolina Marin. Yigit, in fact, ended Anupama Upadhayaya’s hopes of reaching the main draw. The national champion went down in three games on Tuesday.
Other Indians in the fray are Aakarshi Kashyap, Ashmita Chaliha, Tanya Hemanth and Tasnim Mir. With withdrawals in the bottom half of the draw, Chaliha (who starts off with a match against Thet Htar Thuzar of Myanmar) could potentially go deep if she is able to punch above her weight.
In men’s singles, Mithun will be hoping for another good week in France but starts off with a match against Victor Svendsen of Denmark and has to potentially take on Rasmus Gemke in the second round. One Indian is guaranteed a place in the second round, with Kiran George and Priyanshu Rajawat clashing in round of 32. Sameer Verma and B Sai Praneeth are the other two Indians in the fray. Junior worlds silver medallist Sankar Subramanian fell short at the final qualification hurdle on Tuesday.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto started their campaign with a solid win on Tuesday but run into a Chinese pair on Thursday in the second round. There were defeats for N Sikki Reddy / Arathi Sara Sunil and Simran Singhi / Ritika Thakker on Tuesday in the round of 32.
The men’s doubles challenge will be led by Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun, who are seeded seventh. They are the only Indian presence in the draw.
Three Indian pairs will be in action in mixed doubles main draw, with Ponnappa pairing up with Sumeeth Reddy, Sikki Reddy with Rohan Kapoor, and Tanisha Crasto (in the absence of regular partner Ishaan Bhatnagar who is out injured for the near future) pairing up with Sai Pratheek.
Wednesday’s schedule here.
Here are the results from Tuesday:
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!