PV Sindhu And Saina Nehwal May Clash In The Semi-Finals
PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal may clash in the semi-finals of the Swiss Open Badminton Tournament: Swiss Open Badminton Tournament.
Defending world champion PV Sindhu will focus on reaching the podium in the Swiss Open Badminton Tournament starting on Tuesday and making a strong comeback by securing former champion Saina Nehwal.
India’s men’s singles players Sameer Verma, HS Prannoy, and Kidambi Srikanth also won the titles here in 2018, 2016, and 2015 respectively, while B Sai Praneeth was the runner-up last season.
These four players Sameer, Prannoy, Srikanth, and Praneeth will try to replicate their old performances in this competition. The tournament will also lead to the resumption of Olympic qualifying competitions.
Olympic silver medalist Sindhu won the world championship gold medal in 2019 at the St. Jacobshal venue here. This was his last title before the disruption of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Second seed Sindhu will take on Neslihan Egit of Turkey in the first round.
The road to the quarter-finals looks easy here, but in the final eight, they will face fifth-seeded Thai player Busanan Ongbaramrangfan, whom they defeated at the Toyota Thailand Open in January.
Two-time former champion Saina is also in the half with Sindhu. These two Indian players can be face to face in the semi-finals.
However, Saina may have to overcome the challenge of sixth-seeded Sung Ji Hyun of Korea and fourth seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark.
London Olympics bronze medalist Saina will take on Thailand’s Pitayaporn Chitwan, a former World Junior Championships bronze medalist, in the first round.
The world number 10 men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will all be watching.
After practicing for a month under the supervision of new doubles coach Matthias Bo, the second-seeded Indian pair will look to continue their good run.
Satwik and Chirag reached the semi-finals at the Toyota Thailand Open. The Indian pair will face Christopher Grimley and Matthew Grimley of Scotland in the first round.
Satwik and Ashwini Ponnappa are also hopeful of reaching the final four in the last tournament, but they will have to face a tough challenge from the second-seeded pair of Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuel Vieja of Indonesia in the first round.
Initially, Sameer and Srikkanth will face off while Prannoy will start his campaign against Mark Kalijou of the Netherlands and Saurabh Verma against Christian Kritchmayer of Switzerland.
Ajay Jayaram will face Citicom Thammasin of Thailand and P Kashyap will face Pablo Abian of Spain. Praneeth will take on Misha Zilberman in the first round.
Lakshya Sen, who could not participate in the Thailand competitions due to injury, will also return from this tournament. Their first match will be against Tanongsak Sinsomboonsuk of Thailand.
The mixed doubles pair of Pranav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy will face England’s Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith in the first round.
MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will start their campaign against the seventh-seeded Russian pair of Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sazonov.
