Sindhu, Saina, Srikanth, Prannoy qualify for Worlds
NEWDELHI: Shuttlers PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy on Friday booked their berths for the 2018 World Championships based on the current Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings. The rankings determine the eligibility of players under the first phase of the qualifying system — Race to Nanjing’. The annual tournament will be held in the Chinese city from July 30 to August 5.
AXELSEN LEADS
In men’s singles, defending champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark heads the qualifiers along with reigning Olympic champion Chen Long and fivetime world champion Lin Dan. Indians Srikanth (No 5) and Prannoy (No10) too made the cut.
In women’s singles, both Sindhu (No 3) Saina (No 12) have qualified.
Both Sindhu and Saina rewrote history at last year’s event when they returned with silver and bronze medal, respectively.
It was the first instance when Indian shuttlers brought home two medals from the same World Championships.
While Sindhu lost the memorable final to Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, Saina went down in the semifinals. Also, both the girls are the only two Indians to own multiple medals from the prestigious tournament.
While Saina has a silver (2015) and a bronze (2017) each, Sindhu has won the bronze twice (2013 &
2014) and the silver last year (2017).