Badminton: Prannoy eyes second title of season at Indonesia Open, Sindhu has chance to return to rhythm

In-form HS Prannoy will spearhead the Indian challenge at the Badminton International Federation (BWF) Super 1000 badminton tournament Indonesia Open, starting here on Tuesday. Prannoy, who won the Malaysia Masters Super 300 title last month, can go a long way in the tournament which is featuring the top players of world badminton. Prannoy will face Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in the first round followed by China’s Shi Yuqi in the second round.

Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and 2021 World Championships silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth are not in the best of form but will look to start well here. Sindhu made first round exits in the last two tournaments, while Srikanth reached the quarterfinals in Malaysia and Spain. Sindhu will face Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tungjung in the first round, while Srikanth will play China’s Lu Guang Xu.

Lakshya’s first encounter with Jia of China
Thailand Open semi-finalist Lakshya Sen will face world number 10 Li Zijia of China in the first round. Commonwealth Games champions world number five pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will face Indonesia’s Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevan Sanjay Sukamujo. Satwik and Chirag have won the Swiss Open this season but have not beaten the Indonesian pair in their last 11 meetings. MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will face Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin and Teo Yii.

Former world number one Saina Nehwal will play Wang Zhiyi of China in the first round. In women’s doubles, Trisa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will face Japan’s Rin Iwanaga and Ki Nakanishi. The BWF World Tour is played at six levels including the World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500 and 11 Super 300 tournaments.