Victor China Open Superseries: Draws are out

Saina Nehwal is seeded sixth

Seven Indian players will take part in the Victor China Open 2013 tournament which will be held in the city of Shanghai from 12th November to 17th November. This USD 350,000 tournament is a Superseries Premier category tournament and is the fifth and last Superseries Premier Tournament of the year.

Star Indian shuttler and 6th seeded Saina Nehwal will take on the qualifier in the first round. Saina Nehwal is not in the best of the forms as she has not won even a single tournament this year. Saina’s bad form has also affected her ranking as she has now slipped to 7th spot in the latest BWF World Rankings.

The Olympic bronze medalist had slipped to world number six last week after failing to defend her title at Denmark Open and then an early second round exit in the recently concluded French Open Superseries proved even more costly.

If Saina manages to reach till the quarterfinals, then she could well play the reigning Olympic Champion and World No. 1 Li Xuerui of China.

Arundhati Pantawane, who is currently the World No. 47 will play the World No. 13 Japanese shuttler Eriko Hirose in the opening round. Indian teenage badminton sensation and World Championships bronze medalist P.V Sindhu is not playing in this tournament.

In men’s singles category, Parupalli Kashyap who is currently the World No. 12 will play the World No. 8 Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand in the first round. If Kashyap manages to reach till the quarterfinals then he could be up against the World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia.

2013 Yonex Japan Open quarter finalist Ajay Jayaram who is currently the World ranked 26 will take on the qualifier in the first round. If Jayaram gets past the qualifier in the opener then he could well play the World No. 2 Chen Long of China in the next round.

In men’s singles qualification World No. 33 Anand Pawar will lock horns with World No. 48 Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong in the first qualification round. Pawar, who is also the 2nd seed in the qualification needs to win two matches to make it through to the main draw of the tournament.

In men’s doubles, World No. 51 Indian pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy will take on the World No. 14 Russian pair of Ivan Sozonov and Vladimir Ivanov in the first round of the tournament.

There is no Indian participation in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles category of the tournament.