— Atreyo Mukhopadhyay
India’s most prestigious badminton tournament India Open is all set to take place at the K D Jadhav Indoor Hall in New Delhi from 18th of January. Recently upgraded from $ 500 to $ 750 level , India Open this year is set to witness many top players participating.
Lets take a look a the top draws of each categories –
Men’s Singles:
Srikanth Kidambi, Lakshya Sen and H S Prannoy all three of India’s contenders are placed in the top half of the draw. A difficult task for Srikanth looking at the current form Axelsen is in but it would be exciting to see them play against each other.
Top seed Viktor Axelsen will face India’s former World No 1, Kidambi Srikanth in the first round match.
Another exciting clash would be India’s H S Prannoy and Seventh seed Lakshya Sen facing each other in the first round (yet again). At the recently concluded Malaysia Open Prannoy got the better of Lakshya Sen in three thrilling sets.
Currently their Head to Head is 3-3 and the fans would get to see both of India’s MS 1 and MS 2 battling for a spot in the Round of 16.
Other exciting matches would be between the Second seed Lee Zii Jia and Rhustavito, Chinas Zhao Jun Peng and Rising star Weng Hong Yang and Kodai Naroka vs Loh Kean Yew.
Women’s Singles:
Fifth seed P V Sindhu would be leading the Indian contention along with Saina Nehwal, Aakarshi Kashyap and Malvika Bansod.
Sindhu is set to face the tricky left handed Supanida Katethong in the first round with a possible Quarter Finals against Olympic Champion Chen Yu Fei.
Sindhu would look to change the result against the Thai opponent against whom she lost the last time at the India Open 2022. Their Head to Head currently being 3-1.
Saina Nehwal is set to Face Danish Mia Blichfeldt ,Aakarshi to face USA’s
Beiwen Zhang and Malvika to face Thailand’s
Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the first round respectively.
Matches you might not want to miss are Nozomi Okuhara vs Carolina Marin, and Zhang Yi Man vs Wang Zhi Yi
Men’s Doubles:
The Indian contention in MD is to be lead by Fifth seed Satwik/Chirag and Krishna/Vishnu.
Satwik/Chirag are placed in the top half with top seed Hoki/Kobayashi and will face the Scottish pair of Christopher/Matthew who forced a decider against our Indian duo the last time they met at the Denmark Open 2021. Their second round could get tricky as they will face either Liu/Ou or Lane/Vendy.
Krishna/Vishnu will face the Dutch pair of Ruben/Ties.
Exciting matches to look forward to are He/Zhou vs Fikri/Maulana,Ahsan/Setiawan vs Liang/Wang, and Liu/Ou vs Lane/Vendy.
Women’s Doubles:
The young duo of Treesa/Gaytri will lead India’s challenge in WD along with Ashwini/Shikha, Haritha/Ashna and the newly formed pair of Shruti/Sikki.
Treesa/Gayatri to face French pair of Anne/Margot in the first round, with a possible encounter with sixth seeds Zhang/Zheng in the second round, whom they faced at the All England 2022 Semi Finals after their exceptional run at the tournament.
The French pair has a record of 2-0 against Tressa/Gayatri who will look to start their campaign with a win here. Over the past year they have had some great results and would want to reach the deeper stages in the home tournament.
Ashwini/Shikha will face eighth seeds Tan/Tinnah from Malaysia, while Shruti/Sikki will face the German pair of Isabel/Linda, who are ranked 26th in the world rankings, in the first round.
Haritha/Ashna who got promoted from the Reserves will face the sixth seeds, Chinese duo of Zhang/Zheng.
Other exciting matches to look forward to are Zhang/Zheng vs Apriyani/Fadia , Du/Xia vs Lee/Shin and Baek/Lee vs Nami/Shida.
Mixed Doubles:
Ishaan/Tanisha are our sole contention in MD.
They are set to face the Dutch pair of Robin/Selena in their first round , and if they overcome them, they face either the fifth seeds Seo/Chae or Supak/Supissara in their second round.
The Dutch pair is ranked 11th and would be a tough hurdle to clear for our young duo but they have produced some good results over the period of time, and with the home crowd supporting them will they be able to pull off a surprise ?
Exciting first round matches in this sector are Yuta/Arisia vs Hee/Tan, Dejan/Gloria vs Tan/Lai,and Rinov/Pitha vs Wang/Huang.