Badminton News: Call it fate, luck or the shenanigans of AI (artificial intelligence), India’s top two men’s singles badminton players, HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen, will face off again in the early rounds of the tournament high flight.

Last week at the Malaysian Open Super 1000, HS Prannoy, India’s highest ranked men’s singles player (world number 8), took on 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medalist and world number 10, Lakshya Sen . Prannoy then emerged victorious from a fierce battle in three sets.

Ahead of the tournament, Prannoy tweeted, “Looks like the tournament software just wants to see us play against each other in every tournament.”

2022 also saw the Prannoy vs Lakshya match on five occasions. Since then, after Prannoy’s victory at the Malaysian Open 2023, the head-to-head has now become 3-3.

Quite surprisingly, the India Open Super 750 to be held at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi from January 17-22 will also see Prannoy face Lakshya in the first round.

The Badminton World Federation software works in a strange way, Prannoy and Lakshya can’t meet in a different place.

The men’s singles draw also has another top Indian player in the same half of the draw with Prannoy and Lakshya. Kidambi Srikanth will face world number 1 and tournament favorite Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the first round. Srikanth trails Axelsen 3-9 in the head-to-head and the Indian will need to up his game a few notches to overtake the current world and Olympic champions.

Lakshya Sen is the defending Indian Open men’s singles champion. Back then it was a Super 500 tournament and now it has been upgraded to a Super 750 tournament which allows for much tougher competition.

“I will try to defend my title. Every game in the Super 750 or Super 1000 tournament is tough. No day is easy,” Lakshya told TOI ahead of the tournament.

“It’s just a shame that we (him and Prannoy) always face each other so early in the major tournaments. But once the draws, I have to take this game like any other and not take too much pressure” , added Lakshya.

Article tags: Lakshya Sen, HS Pranoy, india open 2023

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