BADMINTON Nehwal named in US Open squad
London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal will spearhead the Indian charge at the US Open to be held in California next month, the Badminton Association of India announced on Monday.
This will be Saina’s first appearance in this Grand Prix Gold tournament.
While the former world no. 1 was named in the women’s singles team along with Rituparna Das and Ruthvika Shivani, the men’s singles squad has a strong line-up in the trio of Sameer Verma, H.S. Prannoy and P. Kashyap.
The mixed doubles category will see the new pair of Ashwini Ponappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy in action. Both dished out a strong performance when they were paired for the first time in the Sudirman Cup last month.
The BAI also named squads for the three upcoming international tournaments — Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold, Canadian Open and the Asian junior championship — after a selection committee meeting in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold (June 27 to July 2): Sourabh Verma, Harsheel Dani, Siril Verma, Sri Krishna Priya, Uttejitha Rao Canadian Open Grand Prix (July 11 to 16): Sameer Verma, H.S. Prannoy, P. Kashyap, Rituparna Das, Ruthvika Shivani, Sri Krishna Priya, Sai Uttejitha Rao. Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy, Poorvisha Ram/J. Meghana, Kuhoo Garg/Nancy B. Hazarika. Sikki Reddy/Pranaav Jerry Chopra US Open Grand Prix Gold (July 19 to 23): Sameer Verma, H.S Prannoy, P. Kashyap, Rituparna Das, Saina Nehwal, Ruthvika Shivani, Manu Attri/Summeth Reddy, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty, Poorvisha Ram/Meghana Jakkampudi, Sikki Reddy/Ashwini Ponnappa, Sikki Reddy/Pranaav Jerry Chopra, Ashiwini Ponnappa/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. Asian Junior Championships (July 22 to 30): Jaswanth D., Lakshya Sen, Karthikey Gulshan Kumar, Arintap Das, Aakarshi Kashyap, Prashi Joshi, Ashmita Chalia, Ira Sharma, Dhruv Kapila/Krishna Prasad, Swarnaraj Bora/Sai Pawan Karri, Krishna Podili/Vishnuvardhan Gaur, Rituparna Panda /U.K. Mithula, Ashwini Bhat/Apeksha, Anugraha/Reza Farhath, Tapaswini S. Roy/Sanjay Srivastav, Dhruv Kapila/U.K. Mithula, G. Krishna Prasad/ partner (to be decided).