Badminton News: Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and men’s doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty received a first-round bye in the 2023 BWF World Championships draw in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
This year’s BWF World Championships will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, from August 21-27.
PV Sindhu, who won the women’s singles world title in 2019, has been drawn into a tough draw, and she could face Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon and Korean top seed An Se Young, who have all been placed in the upper half of the draw.
PV Sindhu is the only Indian representative to compete in women’s singles.
Satwik and Chirag, World Championship bronze medalists in men’s doubles, reached a career high last month after winning the Korea Open and are in excellent form.
India’s men’s singles campaign will be led by in-form, eighth-seeded HS Prannoy. He will face Finland’s Kalle Koljonen.
Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth, the other Indian players participating in the men’s singles, will face Georges Julien Paul of Mauritius and Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the first round.
Prannoy has consistently been India’s top singles player for the past year and he is currently ranked ninth in the world. He won the Malaysian Masters in May before finishing second at the Australian Open last week.
In women’s doubles, India fielded two pairs. While the duo Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand received a bye in the first round, Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam will face Debora Jille and Cheryl Seinen from the Netherlands.
Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy will face Scottish pair Adam Hall and Julie MacPherson in the first round of mixed doubles, while another Indian combination Venkat Prasad and Juhi Dewangan will face Germany’s Jones Ralfy Jansen and Linda Efler in their campaign. opener.
A total of 64 badminton players will compete in men’s singles, 48 in ladies’ singles. Additionally, there are 46 teams each in three doubles events, with the 16 highest-ranked players in the most recent World Rankings ranked in all five categories.
Four Indian players will face off in singles, while six pairs will face off in doubles at the 28th edition of the tournament.
Sindhu is the only Indian to win a World Championships crown so far, having won the title in 2019. She also has two silver and one bronze to her name in the tournament.
Besides Sindhu, former Olympic medalist Saina Nehwal has won two medals at the World Championships – a silver in 2015 and a bronze in 2017.
Article tags: PV Sindhu, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, World Championship 2023
