Indian shuttlers had a good day in office at the BWF World Championships with the men’s singles players K Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth and HS Prannoy advancing to the second round in Basel on Monday.
Two of those players will be in action on day two. Prannoy’s second round battle with the five-time champion Lin Dan is the match to watch out for, as far as the Indian contingent is concerned. Sai Praneeth takes on Korea’s Lee Dong Keun.
PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal have received a bye in the opening round and will start their campaign on Wednesday.
Many of the Indian doubles pairs, including Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, will begin their campaign on Tuesday as well.
Here’s a look at the details of matches involving Indian shuttlers on day of the 2019 World Championships:
HS Prannoy (TV court)
World No 30 Prannoy, who is on a comeback trail after recovering from a stomach problem, fought back to beat 93rd-ranked Eetu Heino of Finland 17-21, 21-10, 21-11. Having received a late call up to the tournament after the withdrawals of Viktor Axelsen and Shi Yu Qi, Prannoy now has the chance to pull off a confidence-boosting upset.
The former world No 8 will face Chinese legend Lin Dan, now seeded 11th and ranked 17th in the world. Prannoy, who has a reputation of producing big upsets when on song, had defeated Lin Dan at the 2018 Indonesia Open and 2015 French Open and the head-to-head is level 2-2.
Opponent’s rank: 17
Head-to-head: Prannoy 2-2 Lin Dan
Previous meetings:
B Sai Praneeth (TV court)
The 16th seed Indian won his first round match in straight games despite an erratic performance against Canada’s Jason Anthony Ho-Sue. He notched a 21-17, 21-16 win in the morning session of day one. He will now take on experience Korean shuttler Lee Dong Keun, the former world No 16.
Opponent’s rank: 39
Head-to-head: Sai Praneeth 2-2 Lee Dong Keun
Previous meetings:
Ashwini Ponnappa / Sikki Reddy (TV court)
With their involvement restricted to just doubles after their respective male partners Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra pulled out of the tournament, Ashwini and Sikki have a fairly easy opening game on paper as the 17th ranked pair take on Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun from Chinese Taipei.
Opponents’ rank: 42
Head-to-head: No previous meetings
Previous meetings: N/A
MR Arjun / Shlok Ramachandran (TV court)
The Indian duo take on Tobias Kuenzi and Oliver Schaller from Switzerland who are ranked in the 1000s.
Opponents’ rank: 1431
Head-to-head: No previous meetings
Previous meetings: N/A
Manu Attri / Sumeeth Reddy
In the absence of Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty, the onus falls on the experienced doubles pairing of Manu and Sumeeth to keep India’s doubles interest going forward. The world No 25 pair have a tricky opening round game against Thom Gicquel and Ronan Labar from France.
Opponent’s rank: 51
Head-to-head: No previous meetings
Previous meetings: N/A
Pooja Dandu / Sanjana Santosh
The third Indian women’s doubles pair, ranked 46, starts their campaign against Hsu Ya Ching and Hu Ling Fan of Chinese Taipei.
Opponents’ rank: 35
Head-to-head: No previous meetings
Previous meetings: N/A
Arun George / Sanyam Shukla
The young Indian pair, ranked 84 in the world, will have their tasks cut out against Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko from Japan.
Opponents’ rank: 21
Head-to-head: No previous meetings
Previous meetings: N/A
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