New Delhi: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will once again spearhead India’s campaign at the Hong Kong Super 500 badminton tournament, starting Tuesday. The world No. 3 men’s doubles pair, fresh from their bronze medal finish at the World Championships in Paris, have been India’s most consistent performers this season with multiple semifinal appearances across India, Malaysia, China, and Singapore. The eighth seeds will kick off their campaign against Chinese Taipei’s Chiu Hsiang Chieh and Wang Chi-Lin.
In women’s singles, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu will look to build on her impressive performance at the Worlds, where she crushed China’s Wang Zhi Yi before falling in the quarterfinals. Sindhu faces Denmark’s Line Christophersen in her opening match. Rising star and US Open champion Ayush Shetty will have a tough test against China’s Lu Guang Zu in the first round, while former world No. 6 Lakshya Sen, still searching for form after a fourth-place finish at the Paris Olympics and a first-round Worlds exit, will take on Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei. HS Prannoy, who lost narrowly to Anders Antonsen in Paris, faces fifth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan in another tricky first-round encounter.
In other singles action, Anupama Upadhyaya meets Japan’s fourth seed Tomoka Miyazaki, while Rakshitha Ramraj faces Thailand’s former world champion Ratchanok Intanon. In doubles, men’s duo Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi, and women’s pair Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda will be in action. Mixed doubles will see Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, fresh from their Worlds quarterfinal appearance, take on Chen Cheng Kuan and Hsu Yin-Hui of Chinese Taipei, while Rohan Kapoor and Gadde Ruthvika Shivani face second seeds Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping of China.
In the qualifiers, former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth will face fellow Indian Tharun Mannepalli in an all-Indian clash. Srikanth remains the only Indian to have reached a Super 500 final this year, finishing runner-up at the Malaysia Masters. Kiran George will play against Malaysia’s Cheam June Wei, while S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian will take on Canada’s Wang Yue Hang.
