Australian Open Super Series draw announced; key Indian players to participate

Saina Nehwal

14 Indian players will be participating in the Star Australian Badminton Open 2014, to be held in Sydney from June 24 to June 29.

This US$750,000 event is a Super Series category tournament, the fifth such tournament of 2014 after Korea Open in January,India Open and Singapore Open in April and Japan Open in June.

In the women’s singles category, star Indian shuttler and World No. 9 Saina Nehwal will battle it out against World No. 31 Chinese shuttler Yu Sun in the opening round on Wednesday. Saina Nehwal, who recently lost to World No. 1 Li Xuerui in the quarter finals of Indonesia Open Superseries Premier is seeded 6th for the tournament.

This will be the second encounter between these two players. In their only meeting in the China Open in 2013, Saina Nehwal lost to her lower ranked Chinese shuttler in a tough three game match. If Saina manages to reach the quarterfinals, she could well play World No. 5 Yeon Ju Bae.

World No. 10 P V Sindhu has a tough opener against World No. 14 Minatsu Mitani. This will be the first meeting between these two players.

Member of Indian Uber Cup team and World No. 47 P.C Thulasi will take on World No. 45 American shuttler Jamie Subandhi in the opening round of the tournament. World No. 2 Wang Shixian is the top seeded player in this tournament, whereas World No. 4 Thai shuttler Intanon Ratchanok has been given the second seed.

In men’s singles, two Indian players will be in action. World No. 73 B.Sai Praneeth will play the qualifier in the opener. If Praneeth gets past qualifier in the first round then he could well play World No. 8 Zhengming Wang of China in the next round. Ranked 57 in the world, HS Prannoy will lock horns with World No. 23 German ace Mark Zweibler.

World No. 3 and Indonesia Open champion Danish shuttler Jan O Jorgensen is the top seeded player and World No. 4 Kenichi Tago of Japan is the second seeded player of the tournament.

In men’s doubles, three Indian pairs will be in action. Young Indian pair of Manu Attri and B.Sumeeth Reddy, who are ranked 44th in th world will take on the 7th seed and Indonesia Open semifinalists Nan Zhang and Haifeng Fu in the opener.

Another Indian pair of Alwin Francis and Arun Vishnu will take on the qualifiers in the first round, whereas Prannav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar will play against Zi Liang Derek Wong and Yong Kai Terry Hee of Singapore.

There is only one Indian pair in the women’s doubles category of the tournament. World No. 62 pair of Siki Reddy and Pradnya Gadre will take on World No. 11 Indonesian pair of Rizki Amelia and Pia Zebadiah in the opening round.

Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa are not playing in this tournament.

In mixed doubles, World No. 52 Indian pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan will faceoff against the local pair Ross Smith and Renuga Veeran in their opening match.