Indian shuttlers face a tricky draw at the Denmark Open Super 750 starting tomorrow. PV Sindhu will start her campaign against World no 1 An Se-young, while Lakshya Sen plays Chou Tien-chen. Many other Indians, including Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, also got tough opponents in their respective opening round games.
Indian shuttlers have been handed a very tricky draw for the Denmark Open Super 750 tournament starting tomorrow. The likes of PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, and Ayush Shetty will face the top seeds in their respective opening games.
In the women's singles, Sindhu will start her campaign against World no 1 An Se-young after finishing in the quarterfinal of the Arctic Open last week. In the last ten clashes, Sindhu has lost all of them and it will be difficult for the two-time Olympic medallist to take on the Korean, who is in red-hot form after winning the World Championships and Asian Games title.
Among other Indians in women singles, Unnati Hooda will face Han Qian Xi of China, Tanvi Sharma will take on Japan's Natsuki Nidaira, Ashmita Chaliha will take on Bulgaria's Kaloyana Nalbantova while Devika Sihag will face eighth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand.
There will be eyes on Ashmita who won her first tour title at the Korea Open Super 300 and Unnati who pushed Akane Yamaguchi at the Asian Games.
Lakshya, Ayush Shetty, and Kidambi Sriknath will feature in the men's singles. While Lakshya will be up against third seed and World championships medallist Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei, Ayush will face a familiar foe in Alwi Farhan of Indonesia.
Alwi was the shuttler who defeated Ayush at the World Championships and the Indonesia youngster won a bronze medal at the Asian Games. Ayush will have to bring out his top game if he wants to stun Alwi in the first round.
Srikanth will face Arnaud Merkle of France in the first round at a tournament he won back in 2017.
In the men's doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will look to bounce back from their shock first-round exit from the Asian Games. The Indian duo claimed the China Masters title last month. The fifth seeds will open against China's He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who have been the best Indian performers in the past three months, will look to build on their World Championships medal and quarter-final finish at the Asian Games. The duo will be up against Chinese Taipei's Yan Fei Chen and Hsieh Pei Shan.