Old rivals P V Sindhu and Nozomi Okuhara may face each other in the in the quarter finals of the world championships 2018, to be held from July 30 to August 5 in Nanjing, China. Both the rivals had a marathon finale at the 2017 world championships where the Japanese edged past Sindhu in a three match thriller.
Despite being the higher ranked player, PV Sindhu had struggled to get going against 8 ranked Okuhara. In the recent outing, the Japanese defeated Sindhu to win the Thailand Open 2018.
According to the draw announced today, Sindhu had received a bye in the first round and will face the winner of Indonesia’s Fitriani Fitriani or Linda Zetchiri match in 2nd round clash. Sindhu is likely to face Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun in the third round.
Also read: List of top 5 badminton players from India currently
Previous editions bronze medallist Saina Nehwal will meet the winner of Sabrina Jaquet or Aliye Demirbag in the second round after getting a bye in opening round. She will battle former world champion Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand in third round and Olympic champion Carolina Marin in quarter finals.
Men’s singles
CWG silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth got a bye in first round and will meet Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen in second round followed by a likely contest with 13th seed from Indonesia Jonatan Christie.
He may face Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei in the quarter final, who thumped the Indian in the gold medal match of Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
HS Prannoy, on the other hand, will face Australia’s Abhinav Manota and might face Wong Wing Ki Vincent and Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen in the persuit to the quarterfinals, where he is expected to meet the All England champion Shi Yuqi.
Singapore Open 2017 winner B Sai Praneeth will have to face Korea’s Son Wan Ho, while Sameer Verma faces France’s Lucas Corvee in the opening round.
Men’s Doubles
National champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will see Bulgarian combo of Daniel Nikolov and Ivan Rusev, while young and promising duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty face Olympic bronze medallists Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge of England.
The young pair of Arjun MR and Ramchandran Shlok, and Tarun Kona and Saurabh Sharma will also be in action.
Women’s doubles
CWG bronze medallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will meet Chinese Taipei’s Chiang Kai Hsin and Hung Shih Han.
Kuhoo Garg and Ningshi Block Hazarika, Jakkampudi Meghana and S Ram Poorvisha, Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant will also compete in the same category.
Mixed doubles
Ashwini pairing with Satwiksairaj and Sikki pairing with Pranaav Jerry Chopra will compete in the mixed doubles event. Other Indians competing in the event are Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg, and Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh.
