The performance of Indian badminton players in the BWF World Championship was not as expected. Stars like double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen could not even reach the quarter-finals. Ayush Shetty had given a strong start to India's campaign by defeating world number-1 Xi Yuqi of China, but by the end of the championship, the country had only one medal in its account. Trisa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won bronze by reaching the semi-finals of women's doubles.
Forgetting the disappointment of the World Championship, Indian shuttlers will now enter the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament. This tournament with prize money of 1 lakh 25 thousand US dollars is starting from Tuesday (September 1). Lakshya Sen will lead the Indian challenge. They will have to face a tough challenge in the first round. Lakshya will face world champion Alex Lanier of France in his opening match.
Kidambi Srikanth, who reached the US Open Super 300 final in June, will face Taiwan's Chi Yu-jen in the first match. Srikanth's performance this season has been up and down. He had to pull out of the tournament due to injury in the Canada Open, after which he was also eliminated in the first round in the Korea Masters.
India will have high hopes from the fourth seeded pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in men's doubles. Satwik and Chirag ended their two-year wait for an international title by winning the Singapore Open earlier this year. They will play their first match against China's Hu Ke Yuan and Lin Jiang Yi.
In women's singles, India will be eyeing three young players Unnati Hooda, Tanvi Sharma and Devika Sihag. Rohtak's 18-year-old Unnat will face fifth seed Han Yu of China. Tanvi will face Amalie Schulze of Denmark and Devika will face Kaloyana Nalbantova of Bulgaria. In other matches, the men's pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun will face eighth-seeded Japanese pair Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, the 2021 world champions.
In mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto will face Thai pair Tonkid and Tonrug Saeheng, while Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde will face Taiwan's Wu Guan Shun and Li Chia Hsin.
