Basel, March 17: Star shuttlers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will continue their quest to regain top form when the USD 250,000 Swiss Open gets underway here on Tuesday, featuring draws that are crowded with Indians.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu, who is seeded seventh, will take on Malvika Bansod, India’s number-two female shuttler, in a clash between two generations.
Lakshya will also face a compatriot in HS Prannoy, who is a 2016 winner here, in his men’s singles opening match of the BWF Super 300 tournament.
Sindhu, the 2022 champion, suffered an opening round exit from the All England Championship last week after returning to action following a hamstring injury. Malvika, however, logged a confidence-boosting win over Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min at the same event.
Lakshya and Prannoy too endured contrasting results in Birmingham last week with the former reaching the quarterfinals and the latter going down in the opening round.
The Indian shuttlers have a formidable record at the Swiss Open. Past champions include Sindhu, K Srikanth, Prannoy, Sameer Verma, Saina Nehwal, and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
This will be the first encounter between Lakshya and Prannoy, who were a part of the 2022 Thomas Cup-winning team, since the Paris Olympics.
Lakshya, who finished fourth at the Paris Olympics, defeated Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie last week, while Prannoy, having returned from a long lay-off due to chikungunya, has struggled with early exits since his comeback.
Among others, Aakarshi Kashyap and Anupama Upadhyaya will also aim for a decent run in women’s singles.
While Kashyap is facing a qualifier, Upadhyaya will take on Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt.
Rakshitha Sree Santhosh Ramraj will meet another Danish player, Line Christophersen, in her opening match.
In men’s singles, Kiran George, who made waves by reaching the quarterfinals at the India Open Super 750, will look to live up to his potential when he faces Denmark’s tricky Rasmus Gemke.
Priyanshu Rajawat will take on Switzerland’s Tobias Kuenzi.
After a quarterfinal finish at the All England Championship, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, seeded fourth here, will square off against Aline Muller and Kelly Van Buiten in their opening match.
Other Indian women’s pairs in fray include Priya Konjengbam/Shruti Mishra and Arathi Sara Sunil/Varshini Viswanath Sri.
National Games gold-medallists Sathish Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath will square off against Koceila Mammeri and Tanina Violette Mammeri in mixed doubles.
In the men’s singles qualifiers, five Indians – 2015 champion Kidambi Srikanth, Ayush Shetty, Tharun Mannepalli, S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, and Sathish – will compete.
Isharani Baruah, Tasnim Mir, and Anmol Kharb will battle it out in the women’s singles qualification. (PTI)
