India Open badminton: Ayush Shetty vs Lakshya Sen the highlight of opening round; Sindhu faces a tricky early draw

File image of Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen. (Photo: BAI)

In what has become something of a tradition at the India Open in recent times, the men’s singles first round will witness an all-Indian clash as former champion Lakshya Sen was drawn to face rising star Ayush Shetty in the round of 32 at the Super 750 tournament that starts in New Delhi next Tuesday. The road doesn’t get much easier for the winner of the Lakshya-Ayush clash, as they’d be faceing either fourth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei or Kenta Nishimoto of Japan.

In women’s singles, PV Sindhu will face Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyen at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, a player who has troubled her in the recent past. Sindhu lost both her matches against Thuy last year, and would be hoping to get back to winning ways. Should she prevail, Sindhu will likely face second seed Wang Zhi Yi next, one of the toughest opponents on tour but one the Indian had outplayed during a stunning win at the World Championships last year in Paris.

File image of Indian shuttler PV Sindhu. (Photo: BAI)

The India Open, which has been upgraded to Super 750 since 2023, has been moved from KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium to the bigger multi-purpose hall within the Indira Gandhi Stadium Complex where the players will get to test out conditions ahead of the BWF World Championships to be held in August later this year in India.

Among the other Indian singles players, former world no. 1 Kidambi Srikanth will be up against world no. 12 Lin Chun-Yi with a possible second round clash against Christo Popov, who created history last month by becoming the first French player to win the BWF World Tour Finals men’s singles title. HS Prannoy, who got into the main draw after the withdrawal of Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, will open his campaign against last edition finalist Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong.

Malvika Bansod, returning after a long injury break and playing in the tournament with her protected ranking, will face Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei in the opening round. She is the only other Indian in women’s singles after the updated list of players, with Unnati Hooda among the withdrawals.

In the doubles category, former champions Satwik-Chirag have been handed a relatively easy opener against USA’s Chen Zhi Yi and Presley Smith. Their first real test may come in the quarter-finals where they could meet Chinese’s eighth seeds Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi, who ended the Indian duo’s dream run at the World Championships in Paris on semifinals Saturday.

Two-time All-England semifinalists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will be up against Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn and Sukitta Suwachai of Thailand with a possible second round against Chinese seventh seeds Li Yi Jing and Luo Xu Min.

In the other interesting opening round clash, top seed An Se Young will face former world champion Nozomi Okuhara while third seed Akane Yamaguchi will be up against compatriot Riko Gunji.