Following the All England Championships in March, the second Superseries Premier event of the year is all set to start on Tuesday at Shah Alam, Malaysia.
With the level being taken notches higher due to the imminent cut off date for the Rio Olympics, players will be keen to improve their rankings. On the other hand they would also be careful to prevent injuries by not overworking, a luxury which the top most players can well afford, for tougher battles ahead.
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Will the Indian men recover from the Indian Open slump?
Almost all the top stars have lined up for the Malaysian event. While Chen Long is the defending champion, he will face stiff competition from the likes of home favourite Lee Chong Wei, Lin Dan, Kento Momota and others. While the latter was crowned champion in India last week, the other two faced early exits.
Three Indians will feature in the qualifying draw. Gurusai Dutt, Sameer Varma and Sai Praneeth will start their campaigns on Tuesday for a place in the main draw.
In the main draw, HS Prannoy faces the toughest challenge in the form of Indian Open champion Kento Momota. While Kashyap has drawn a qualifier (Sameer Verma would occupy that spot if he wins his matches on Tuesday), Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram face Bonsak Ponsana and Hu Yun. Barring Prannoy, all others face winnable first round matches.
Disappointingly, all the Indians went out in the first round of the home Superseries event, where they have a history of creating a few upsets. A reversal of fortunes would bring in some much needed confidence to the team.
It would also be interesting to see if Kashyap has completely recovered from his injury.
Saina looks for a first title at the event
After spending the first few weeks in anxiety, fans would now be relieved to see Saina Nehwal back in business. Though she failed to defend her Indian Open title, her performance allayed fears of a dip in form.
Seeded third, she faces Nitchaon Jindapol in the first round, in a repeat of their encounter from last week. She could then face Bae Yeon Ju in the second round, which is a dangerous matchup considering that the Korean was a semifinalist last week.
In the quarterfinals she is drawn to meet the All England Champion Nozomi Okuhara, while she is likely to play either of Li Xuerui or Wang Shixian in the semifinals.
PV Sindhu faces Chinese youngster He Bingjiao in the first round. She could face Sung Ju Hyun and Ratchanok Intanon in the next two rounds.
Top seed Carolina Marin could face Wang Yihan and Ratchanok Intanon, who is in sublime form after the title win last week, on her way to the finals .
Sikki Reddy has a new partner in women's doubles
The most interesting news from the Indian perspective comes from the women’s doubles draw. Sikki Reddy, one of India’s top doubles players, will now team up with Indonesia’s Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth. The latter is a former World no.6 (both in women’s doubles and mixed doubles) while Sikki Reddy’s career best ranking was no.31 which she achieved last year.
The twenty two year old will play with the Indonesian in the main draw, opening against Wu Ti Jung and Hsieh Pei Chen.
The two have been given an easy opening match considering the fact that SIkki Reddy and her regular partner Pradnya Gadre had beaten the duo from Chinese Taipei in their only encounter last year.
In the second round, though, they could face the top seeds from China Luo Ying and Luo Yu. They are slated to play at the Singapore Open as well, while further plans are not known.
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa have decided to skip the event.
Vineeth Manuel and S Sanjeeth will play the men’s doubles qualifier on Tuesday. The top two Indian teams feature in the main draw. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar will face Chinese third seeds Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan in the first match.
Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy face All England Champions Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov. Given the draw, it could be difficult for either team to win their opening matches.
In mixed doubles, Prajakta Sawant of India and Yogendran Khrishnan of Malaysia will face Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy. They latter combine upset the World no.13 team from Korea last week at the Indian Open, in the only performance which saw Indian players punch above their weight.
In the second and final qualifying round they will face the same Chinese team of Wang Yilyu and Huang Yaqiong which overpowered the them into the quarterfinals of the Indian Open.
Opportunity to bag points ahead of Olympics
This is one of the few major events ahead of the cut off date for the rankings for Olympics.
With not much to defend except for Saina’s semifinal appearance and a few others’ second round appearances from last year, a few good performances at this tournament could provide some valuable points ahead of the Olympics.
