WASHINGTON: Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and Commonwealth Games champion, winner of the recently-concluded Canada Open 2023, Lakshya Sen will be leading the Indian challenge in the US Open competition, starting from Tuesday to go on till July 16 in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
As per Olympics.com, this will be the 16th tournament of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour 2023 calendar.
PV Sindhu, who sank to number 15 in the latest BWF World Rankings, was able to make it to the final four stage of the Canada Open, where she lost to number one Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.
Sindhu has not been in the best form this year and is yet to win a BWF World Tour event this year. She did make it to the final of the Madrid Spain Masters back in March. She will be facing a qualifier in the first round of the US Open.
Gadde Ruthvika Shivani is another women’s singles player in the main draw and Imad Farooqui Samiya will kickstart her campaign from the qualifier stage.
Lakshya has momentum on his side as he just won the Canada Open, he is world number 19 at the moment and defeated All England Open champion Li Shi Feng of the Republic of China to clinch his first piece of silverware for this year.
Lakshya is the third seed in this tournament and will be facing world number 51 Kalle Koljonen of Finland in the round of 32.
B Sai Praneeth, will also start his journey in the main draw. The CWG 2014 champion Parupalli Kashyap will start his campaign in qualifiers against France’s Lucas Claerbout. S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian will also play in the qualifiers
In the men’s doubles competition, the absence of the star duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be felt. Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala will be India’s only hope in men’s doubles and will face Lin Yu Chieh and Su Li Wei of Chinese Taipei in the first match.
In the women’s doubles, the duo of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda will play in the main draw. Also, Apeksha Nayak and Ramya Chickmenhalli Venkatesh will also feature in the main draw of the women’s doubles competition.
US Open 2023 badminton: Indian squad
-Men’s singles
Main Draw: Lakshya Sen, B Sai Praneeth
Qualifiers: S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, Parupalli Kashyap
-Women’s singles
Main draw: PV Sindhu, Gadde Ruthvika Shivani
Qualifiers: Imad Farooqui Samiya
-Men’s doubles
Main draw: Krishna Prasad Garaga/Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala
-Women’s doubles
Main draw: Apeksha Nayak/Ramya Chickmenhalli Venkatesh, Rutaparna Panda/Swetaparna Panda. (ANI)