Byes for Sindhu, Saina at Worlds
New Delhi, Aug. 9: Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu and former world no. 1 Saina Nehwal received first round byes at the world championship starting in Glasgow, Scotland, from August 21.
Two-time bronze medallist Sindhu will open her campaign against either South Korea’s Kim Hyo Min or Egypt’s Hadia Hosny in the second round and is likely to meet China’s Sun Yu for a place in the quarterfinals.
A 2015 world championship silver medallist, Saina will take on the winner of the match between Switzerland’s Sabrina Jaquet and Ukraine’s Natalya Voytsekh and is expected to clash with second seed South Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun for a place in the pre-quarter-finals.
Kidambi Srikanth, who clinched successive titles at Indonesia and Australia and reached the final at Singapore, opens his campaign against Russia’s Sergey Sirant.
Among other Indians in men’s singles, 15th seed B. Sai Praneeth, who won his maiden Super Series title beating Srikanth in Singapore, faces Hong Kong’s Wei Nan, while Ajay Jayaram takes on Austrian Luka Wraber in the opening round.
Sameer Verma, playing his maiden world championship after being given a direct entry in the main draw, squares off against Spain’s Pablo Abian.
In women’s singles, national champion Rituparna Das meets Finland’s Airi Mikkela in the opening round, while Tanvi Lad will fight it out against England’s Chloe Birch.
Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy will be up against the Korean pair of Chung Eui Seok and Kim Dukyoung, while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty face the Japanese combo of Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe in the opening round of men’s doubles event. — PTI