Lakshya Sen Pulls Out Of The Swiss Open Badminton Tournament

Lakshya Sen pulls out of the Swiss Open, PV Sindhu and Srikanth eyes on the form.

In the absence of All England Championships runner-up Lakshya Sen, all eyes will be on two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and World Championship silver-winner Kidambi Srikanth in the Swiss Open badminton tournament, starting Tuesday.

Sen decided to pull out of the Swiss Open due to fatigue after two consecutive weeks of a hectic schedule.

Sen has done well in the last two weeks but top players Sindhu, Srikkanth, and Saina Nehwal also failed to reach the quarter-finals at the All England Championships in Birmingham.

This week they will try to improve their performance.

While Sindhu and Saina had lost in the second round at both the German Open and All England Championships, Srikanth reached the last-eight of the German Open.

Sindhu was given second seed here. She will take on world number 32 Hojmark Kjrsfeldt of Denmark in the first round, while Saina will face seventh seed Wang Zi Yi of China.

Srikanth, who has been in good form since winning the bronze medal at the World Championships, will face a qualifier in the men’s singles opening match.

Tokyo Olympian B Sai Praneeth will take on compatriot HS Prannoy in his opening match, while P Kashyap will take on the qualifiers.

In women’s singles, Akarshi Kashyap will face Germany’s Yvonne Lee in the first round.

Men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty seeded third, will open their campaign against Indonesian pair of Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Moulana.

In men’s doubles, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila and Krishna Prasad Garga and Vishnuvardhan Gaur Panjala will also present their challenge.

In women’s doubles, All England Championship semi-finalists Trisha Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will take on second-seeded Thailand pair of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Ravindra Prajongjai in the first round.

The sixth-seeded pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will face Switzerland’s Aline Muller and Genjira Stadelmann.

In mixed doubles, Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto and Venkat Gaurav Prasad, and Juhi Devangan will present the challenge.