New Delhi, March 18: World No.8 shuttler Saina Nehwal is the only Indian to own been seeded at the $250,000 India Open Super Series to be held at the Siri Fort Sports complex here April 1-6.
Saina has been seeded eighth in the draw that was created Tues. She faces a simple opener against Austrian Simone Prutsch within the initial round of India’s premier badminton tournament.
World No.1 and reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China is the high seed whereas defending champion and world No.4 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand has been seeded fourth.
Saina’s subject world No.9 P.V. Sindhu can combat second seed and World No.2 Shixian Wang of China within the opener. however the 18-year-old Hyderabadi will take confidence from the fact that she has a 3-0 win-record over the Chinese and defeated her last week too at the Swiss Open quarterfinals.
The other Indians in the women’s singles main draw are Tanvi Lad, former national champion Trupti Murgunde, P.C. Thulasi, Saili Rane and Arundhati Pantawane.
In men’s singles draw, defensive champion and World No.1 Lee Chong dynasty of Malaysia are the most attraction as the high seed.
The Indians in the main men’s draw are Parupalli Kashyap, Sourabh Varma, R.M.V. Gurusaidutt, B. Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth, Anand Pawar and H.S. Prannoy.
There are 2 direct qualifications for the men’s doubles main draw and 3 in women’s doubles.
Pranaav Kraut Chopra/Akshay Dewalkar and Manu Attri/B. Sumeeth Reddy can participate in men’s competition whereas Prajakta Sawant/Arathi Sara Sunil, Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa and Pradnya Gadre/N. Siki Reddy are in women’s doubles.
Abhijeet Naimpally/Trupti Murgunde, Gaurav Venkat/Juhi Dewangan, Pranaav Kraut Chopra/Maneesha K., Tarun Kona/Ashwini Ponnappa, Akshay Dewalkar/Pradnya Gadre, Abhishek Ahlawat/Kristi Das and Arun Vishnu/Aparna Balan are the Indians pairings for the mixed doubles competitions.
