Jayaram, Sourabh to lead Indian charge
Shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and Sourabh Verma will look to make a mark when they spearhead India’s challenge at the Chinese Taipei World Tour Super 300 tournament starting here on Tuesday.
With two Super 750 world tour events — Denmark Open (Oct 16-21) and French Open (Oct 23-28) scheduled this month, the top Indian shuttlers including PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth have decided to skip the event this week.
In their absence, former World No. 13 Jayaram and former national champion Sourabh will look to keep the tricolour flying when they begin their campaign in the men’s singles competition.
Jayaram, who had reached the finals of Vietnam Open and White Nights on his comeback after recovering from a hamstring injury, will look to overcome the first round exits in the last couple of tournaments when he faces Japan’s Hashiru Shimono. World No. 65 Sourabh, who had won the Russian Open in July and had qualified for the Indian team at 18th Asian Games after recovering from injury, will take on local favourite Lee Chia Hao.
Among others, Rahul Yadav Chittaboina will meet Taiwanese Lu Chia Hung, while Abhishek Yeligar will have the difficult task of upsetting experienced Jan’O Jorgensen, seeded fifth.
In women’s singles, Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka will meet Chinese Taipei’s Chiang Ying Li, Mugdha Agrey will play seventh seed Soniia Cheah and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli squares off against another local player Lin Ying Chun.