2015 Denmark Open - A look at the draw for Indian players

Saina Nehwal will look to win her first maiden Denmark Open title in 3 years

Ten Indian players will be participating in the 68th edition of the Denmark Open (formerly known as Danish Open) which will be held in the beautiful city of Odense from October 13th to October 18th. This USD 650,000 tournament is a Superseries Premier category tournament and is third of the kind in this year. It was started in 1935 but was interrupted by World War II due to which it was cancelled from 1955-1964.

As of now, only two Indian players have managed to seal the Championship title in the last 67 editions of this tournament. Prakash Padukone clinched the men’s singles title in 1979-80, whereas Saina Nehwal won the women’s singles crown in 2012.

In the women’s singles category, two Indian players will be in action. Star Indian shuttler and World No. 1 Saina will take on the World ranked 17 Thai shuttler Busanan Ongbumrungphan in the opening round. Saina, who had a win-loss record of 1-0 against the lower ranked opponent has had a pretty decent 2015 as apart from winning the Indian Open Superseries and Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold, she emerged as the finalist at World Championships and All England Open.

If the 25-year old from Hyderabad manages to reach the Quarterfinals then she could well play the Korea Open Superseries winner Hyun Ji Sung.

World No.9 and two time World Championships bronze medalist P.V Sindhu, who had spent most of the time this year dealing with an injury and struggling for form will lock horns with the World ranked 30th Indonesian girl Maria Febe Kusmastuti.

This would be the 4th meeting between these two players, in their previous three encounters, the 20-year old Indian has got the better of her 26-year old rival on two occassions but it’s been almost three years since the two shuttlers last met.

If Sindhu manages to get past Maria in the opener then she could well take on the 3rd seed and World No. 4 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.

Four Indian players will lead the charge in men’s singles category. Ranked 8th in the world, Parupalli Kashyap, who made it to the Indonesia Open Superseries quarterfinals in June will have an uphill task in the first round as he will take on the former World No. 1 and current World No. 24 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia. Kashyap has never got past the challenge of Chong Wei in their previous six meetings.

So the 29-year old from Bangalore needs to be at his level best if he wants to beat the two-time Olympic silver medalist Malaysian badminton star.

Srikanth, who had a pretty miserable 2015 will play the World No. 22 Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand in the Round of 32. It’s high time that the former World No. 3 Indian raises his graph because with each passing tournament, the road to Rio will get more tougher and tougher.

This will be the fifth clash between these two shuttlers. Both the players have got past the other on two occassions. Another Indian shuttler and World ranked 16, H.S Prannoy will battle out with the shuttler from Taipei, Hsu Jen Hao. In their only meeting at Bulgarian International in 2011, the shuttler from Taipei emerged victorious defeating Indian by 23-21, 21-16.

Prannoy, who had failed to get past the Quarterfinal stage in his last eight tournaments could well play the World No. 4 Japanese ace Kento Momota in the second round. Kashyap is in the top half of this category, whereas Prannoy and Srikanth are in the bottom half.

In men’s singles, Ajay Jayaram, who shocked everyone after reaching the finals of Korea Open Superseries last month will start his campaign with the qualifiers.

In women’s doubles, 2011 World Championships bronze medallist and World ranked 12 pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa will be in action against the 7th seeds Japanese pair of Reika Kakiiwa and Miyuki Maeda in the opening round. This will be the second meeting between these two pairs. Indians stunned the higher ranked Japanese in the World Championships held at Jakarta in a nail biting three game match in August.

In men’s doubles, young and 20th ranked Indian pair of B.Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri will take on the highly experienced English pair of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge.There is no Indian participation in the mixed doubles category of the tournament.