Saina hopes to grab first title of season at Indonesia Open

JAKARTA: Saina Nehwal will continue her quest for a maiden title this season to boost her confidence ahead of the Rio Olympics when she begins her campaign at the USD 900,000 Indonesia Open Super Series Premier starting with the qualifiers here Monday. After missing a few tournaments due to a nagging ankle injury, Saina recovered well to notch up a consistent run of form, reaching the semifinals in a slew of events, including the India Open, Malaysia Open and Asian Championship. En route to Indian women’s team’s bronze medal winning feat at the Uber Cup, Saina won all the matches in the league stage but lost to Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon and China’s Li Xuerui in the knockouts. Saina, who had won the Indonesia Open title in 2009, 2010 and 2012, will hope to come up with a better show against the top shuttlers and grab her fourth crown when she opens her campaign against Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po on Tuesday. However, P V Sindhu, has decided to give it a miss as she will be training after a hectic schedule last month. In men’s singles too, K Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram decided to skip the event, while P Kashyap is undergoing physiotherapy after being operated for an injury. H S Prannoy too will miss the event as he is still recovering from a toe injury. In qualifiers, B Sai Praneeth and RMV Gurusaidutt too will miss out and national champion Sameer Verma will be the only Indian competing in men’s singles after he was promoted to the main draw. Rio-bound shuttlers, including 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will be up against the Indonesian pair of Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Ribka Sugiarto, while Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will face Philippines’ Peter Gabriel Magnaye and Alvin Morada in men’s doubles category. (PTI)