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Indian badminton stars, such as PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen, will be eager to continue their outstanding run at the BWF World Championships 2022, which begin in Tokyo on August 22. This comes after a strong campaign at the recently finished Commonwealth Games.
After winning the competition in 2019, world No. 7 Sindhu, who earned her first singles gold at CWG 2022 in Birmingham, will be aiming for her second world championship.
Even before the semifinals, the two-time Olympic medalist may face Wang Zhi Yi of China, the defending Asian champion, and An Se Young of Korea, who is rated No. 3 in the world badminton rankings.
Saina Nehwal, a former world number one who missed the CWG, will return to the court in the meantime. The bronze medalist from the London Olympics, who is ranked 28th right now, will play Jong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi in her opening round. She may also face world No. 6 Nozomi Okuhara of Japan as early as the second round.
Malvika Bansod, the third Indian in the women’s singles draw, opens her campaign against Line Christophersen of Denmark, ranked 21st in the world.
Among the men, only one of India’s Kidambi Srikanth (ranked 13th), Lakshya Sen (10th), and HS Prannoy (18th) can advance to the semi-finals because they are all in the same half of the draw.
Lakshya, who won the men’s singles gold this week in Birmingham, will be the centre of attention.
The Indian men’s doubles team will be led by Birmingham 2022 gold medalists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. Additionally competing are the Indian teams Manu Attri/B Sumeeth Reddy, Krishna Prasad Garaga/Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala, and MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila.
However, in the women’s doubles, where Pooja Dandu/Sanjana Santosh and Ashwini Bhat K/Shikha Gautam will also be vying for first place, Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand and Ashwini Ponnappa/N Sikki Reddy will be India’s biggest prospects.
Two Indian teams, Ishaan Bhatnagar/Tanisha Crasto and Venkat Gaurav Prasad/Juhi Dewangan, will compete in the mixed doubles category. The Indian team in Japan will consist of a total of 27 shuttlers.
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