Top Indian shuttlers will be eyeing Olympic qualification when they take the ground at Orleans Masters tournament in France. The Super 100 tournament will feature top Indian shuttlers like Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap, Ashwini Ponappa, Sikki Reddy, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and more. Beginning on March 23, the tournament finals will be held on March 28 at the Palais Des Sports.
The tournament is not lucrative when it comes to prize money or ranking points, but it is one of the remaining event which will be counted for Olympic qualification and some impressive run in the tournament might bring an individual close to Olympic qualification.
After Orleans Masters, only three tournament will be remaining for the Indian shuttlers to make a mark. Saina Nehwal is seeded 4th in the tournament and some impressive performance is needed from the former world number one to get yet another Olympic quota. The ace shuttle retired from the first round of All England Open due to an injury but she recovered well to participate in the Super 100 event. Ira Sharma and Aakarshi Kashyap are the others women’s singles shuttlers, who have received entries into the qualifying rounds of the tournament.
In men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth will be the top Men’s seed followed by Parupalli Kashyap at 5th and HS Prannoy at 7th. Siril Verma, Chirag Sen, Ajay Jayaram, Kiran George and Subhankar Dey have all received direct entries into the main draw as well. Mithun Manjunath, Rahul Yadav Chittaboina, Shreyansh Jaiswal, B.M. Rahul Bharadwaj and Alap Mishra have made it to the qualifying stages.
The women’s doubles pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will be seeded 8th. Men’s doubles will be headed by the pair of M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila while the pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnu Vardhan fight it out in the qualifying events.
The Mixed doubles pairs of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy and Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponnappa will also be a part of the main draw at the event.
Live streaming
The live streaming of the event will be available on orleansmasters.com. Badminton lovers can also catch the action on French Badminton Federation’s official YouTube channel. If any top Indian shuttler reaches the semi-final stage, expect Star Sports to broadcast the matches live on their network.
The total prize money for the Orleans Masters Badminton 2021 tournament will be USD 90,000.
