BWF India Open: Lakshya and Ayush faceoff in opener

Former champion Lakshya Sen has been pitted in an all-Indian battle against the up-and-coming Ayush Shetty, while former world champion PV Sindhu will face Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyenin the opening round of the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament to be played at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here from January 13-18.
The India Open, one of the most prestigious tournaments on the BWF World Tour, will move from the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium to a much larger multi-purpose hall within the Indira Gandhi Stadium Complex.
Players will also get to understand and test the conditions, as this will be the venue for the BWF World Championships in August later this year.
If the Indian contingent were hoping for a slightly easier opening round, they were clearly not granted that wish.
From the Indian perspective, Lakshya facing former world junior bronze medallist Ayush Shetty would mean only three of the four Indian men’s singles in the fray would have a chance to make it to the second round. Whoever goes through in this all-Indian clash is likely to face fourth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei or Kenta Nishimoto of Japan.
Among the other Indian singles players, former world no. 1 Kidambi Srikanth will be up against 2024 Taipei Thomas Cup bronze medallist and world no. 12 Lin Chun-Yi, with a possible second-round clash against Christo Popov, who created history last month by becoming the first French player to win the BWF World Tour Finals men’s singles title.
H S Prannoy, who got into the main draw after the withdrawal of Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, will open his campaign against last edition finalist Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong. In the women’s singles, former world champion Sindhu will be up against Nguyen, against whom the Indian had lost both their last two encounters. Nguyen, ranked 22 in the world, is one of the most improved players on the circuit last year. If she manages to get through the Vietnamese, then second seed Wang Zhi Yi or her Chinese teammate Gao Fang Jie awaits her in the second round.
Malvika Bansod, returning after a long injury break and playing in the tournament with her protected ranking, will face Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei in the opening round.
In the doubles category, former champions Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy have been handed a relatively easy opener against the USA’s Chen Zhi Yi and Presley Smith. Their first real test may come in the quarter-finals, where they could meet China’s eighth seeds Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi.