Changzhou (China),
Sep 16:
World champion P V Sindhu will look to reassert her supremacy when she spearheads the Indian campaign at the USD 1,000,000 China Open World Tour Super 1000 tournament beginning here tomorrow.
The World No.5 Sindhu ended India’s long wait for a world championship gold at Basel, Switzerland last month.
She achieved the historic feat after her third successive final appearance. The performance also turned around her erratic season during which she had reached the finals at the Indonesia Open Super 1000 event.
Life after that historic gold has been all about felicitations and the Indian will now have to quickly turn her focus back on badminton as she remains the country’s best bet at the China Open, a title she had won in 2016.
The 24-year-old from Hyderabad will begin her campaign against China’s Li Xuerui, a former Olympic gold medallist and World No.1.
Interestingly, Sindhu had announced her arrival on the international scene when she had stunned the then Olympic champion Li at the China Masters in 2012.
Since then, Sindhu has reached the highest echelons of international badminton, while Li has been dealing with a career-threatening knee injury that she suffered at the Rio Olympics.
The Chinese is currently ranked 20th but has a 3-3 record against Sindhu.
Sindhu had beaten Li at the Indonesia Masters earlier this year and if she can cross the opening hurdle, she is likely to face Canadian Michelle Li, who hasn’t beaten the Indian since 2014.
If everything goes well, then she might be up against China’s third seed and All England champion Chen Yufei in the quarter-final.
World No.8 Saina Nehwal, who had won the Indonesia Masters this year, will also look to put up a good show following her recovery from injuries which bogged her down this season.
The former World No.1 looked good at the world championships before a few controversial umpiring decisions ended her run when she lost to Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in second round.
Saina will face Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the opening round and is expected to clash with former world no.1 and her nemesis Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.
China Open, the last Super 1000 event of the World Tour season, will also see the return of two superstars — Olympic champion and three-time world champion Carolina Marin and 2017 World Champion Viktor Axelsen. Both the bigwigs will be back after recovering from their respective injuries. (PTI)
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