Saina Nehwal faces the former champion Tai Tzu Ying in the first round of All England championship 2018, while P V Sindhu faces lower ranked Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong after the Indian shuttlers were handed a tricky draw at the USD 1000,000 All England Championship next month.
World no. 11 Saina will face Tai Tzu Ying, who enjoys a better record against the Indian shuttler. Saina reached the finals of 2015 England Open where Tai got the better of her in the finals. The Indian would see this as a chance to better the head to head record against the Chinese Taipei player in the Yonex England open opener.
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PV Sindhu will be the favourite a past the Thai opponent in the first round. She might face the inform Beiwan Zhang of USA. Zhang had defeated Sindhu at the India Open final.
World No. 3 and third seeded Kidambi Srikanth, will face Brice Leverdez of France in the first round. Srikanth will like to take the form of last year as he won 4 Super Series title in 2017, equaling the record of some of greats like Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan.
Singapore Open champion Praneeth will face the challenge from former world number one Korean Son Wan Ho, while World No. 13 Prannoy, who is still recovering from the foot infection that saw him struggle at the India Open, will clash with eighth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei, who had finished runners-up twice at the India Open.
In the doubles events, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who had reached the semifinals of Indonesia Open, will face Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan, while India Open semifinalists Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy will take on Germany’s Marvin Emil Seidel and Linda Efler in opening round.
Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will meet England pair of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge, while Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki will have to fight it out against second seeded Japanese combo of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi.
Rising women’s doubles pair of Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram will face fifth seeded Japanese pair of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto.
Pullela Gopichand who is the current national coach of the Indian badminton is the last Indian to win the prestigious All England Championship way back in 2001. The current competitive bunch of Indian shuttlers will like to end the title drought.
