Swiss Open Badminton: Indian shuttlers out to put All England disappointment behind them

Saina Nehwal and the other Indian shuttlers will get a chance to put their All England Championships’ disappointment behind them and redeem themselves when the $125,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold gets underway on Tuesday.

Saina, winner of the tournament here in 2011 and 2012, will open her campaign against a qualifier on Wednesday. Saina comes into the tournament after a loss in straight games to the newly-crowned All England Champion Wang Shixian in the quarterfinals.

Saina could run into world No. 4 and 2nd seed Wang Yihan in the quarterfinals. Saina has a 1-6 record against Yihan with her only win coming at the London Olympics in the bronze medal match when Yihan had to retire with a knee injury.

Saina, currently ranked No.7 in the world, will have to raise her game significantly in order to have any chance of adding to her 2 titles at the Swiss Open.

P.V. Sindhu’s All England debut was nothing to write home about, but the Hyderabadi will get a chance to put that behind her as she comes into the tournament seeded 7th. With her first round opponent Beatriz Corrales of Spain having already withdrawn, the World No.9 is likely to sail into the quarterfinals.

Sindhu could, however, face Wang Shixian in the quarterfinal stage. Sindhu has beaten the former World No.1 in both their encounters last year but will have to be on top of her game nevertheless to stand a chance against the Chinese.

Parupalli Kashyap is seeded third in the men’s singles draw and will open his campaign against Holland’s Erik Meijs.

The world no.18, who crashed out in the first round at the All England Championships, could face sixth seed Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.

Thailand Open winner Kidambi Srikanth, seeded fifth, will be up against World No. 42 Henri Hurskainen, while Mumbai`s Anand Pawar will meet Malaysia`s Kok Pong Loke.

Commonwealth Games gold medalists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will feature in the main draw after receiving a direct entry.

Ashwini will also pair up with Tarun Kona in the mixed doubles, while Tarun will combine with Jishnu Sanyal to compete in the men`s doubles qualification.

You can check out the complete draw here.