2016 Asian Champion Wang Yihan will head the Chinese assault this time around
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Can Saina Nehwal propel India to a maiden title?
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After grabbing a historic bronze in the last edition at New Delhi, India would be looking for every opportunity to go close. India’s singles contingent is definitely the more dependable brigade, especially because the country’s two top shuttlers will be in action.
After recovering from an ankle injury, the eighth-ranked Saina Nehwal has been showing signs of being back at her best form as evidenced by her semi-final appearances at the India Open, Malaysia Open and the Badminton Asia Championships. At the India Open, she was even close to toppling Li Xuerui and that should encourage her to step up further when the going gets tough.
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PV Sindhu, ranked 10th, is another indispensable member of the team. She started the season with a title at the Malaysia Masters and since then has gone a bit off the boil. But if the 20-year-old two-time World Championships bronze medallist can hold her nerves, she can beat the very best in the game like she has proved many a time.
India are in the same group as Japan and that might be a tall order for the doubles teams given how competent Japan’s doubles pairs are. But Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa are veterans and are certainly capable of producing upsets on their day.
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About the author
Sudeshna Banerjee
Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.
Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.
Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.
Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.
When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.
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