Testing times await home-grown shutters in India Open

For once, it is a truly world class field. Clearly stronger than what one gets to witness in the Olympic Games. The country’s flagship badminton event – the $900,000 India Open – is back with stars like never before. Enhanced prize-money and the upgrade to Super 750 on the Badminton World Federation calendar.

When the world’s top 25 ranked players are part of the 32-man field in singles and 17 of the top-16 players – with the exception of Chinese Taipei’s World No. 3 Tai Tzu Ying – are around in the women’s field, one can expect nothing but the best.

Needless to say, a number of World and Olympic champions and medallists are around in all five sections. Indeed, for a badminton lover in the country, the best place to spend this week is at the Indira Gandhi Stadium’s K. D. Jadhav indoor hall here.

In this elite mix, to expect World No. 10 Lakshya Sen to defend his title is rather unfair. Seeded seventh, Lakshya runs into teammate World No. 8 H. S. Prannoy in the campaign-opener for the second time in a week. The 2021 World champion bronze-medallist will be looking to prevent Prannoy from playing his all-attacking game. Since Lakshya has better speed and on-court movement, Prannoy will have to continue to finish the point at the earliest in order to repeat his triumph.

K. Srikanth, drawn to play World and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen in the first round on Wednesday, could again find it tough to advance against a man fresh from winning the Malaysia Open on Sunday.

Among the ladies, P. V. Sindhu is back from the stress fracture on her left knee and eager to regain the title. Though her first round exit to former World and Olympic champion Carolina Marin last week is not much to go by, Sindhu sounded confident on the eve of the opening match against Thailand’s Supanida Katethong.

Last year, Sindhu lost to Supanida in the India Open but avenged the loss in the Syed Modi International and repeated the dose in the Swiss Open, all in three games.

“Being a Super 750 event, each round is expected to be tough and I am ready for it,” said Sindhu on Monday and continued, “Last year I lost to Supanida here and then beat her at Lucknow, so I am quite confident. After the injury, my game is coming along nicely but it takes time to get into your rhythm after a six-month lay off.”

In men’s doubles, where fifth seed Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy have a chance to play above their seeding, 15 of the top-16 pairs in the world are in the fray. The only pair missing from the elite list is the 12th ranked Lee Yang-Wang Chi-Lin from Chinese Taipei. Chirag and Satwik are fresh from reaching the semifinal of Malaysia Open on Saturday but run into a possible quarter-final clash with the top seeds from Japan Takuro Hoki and Yu Kobayashi.

In the women’s doubles and mixed doubles, in such a classy field, Indians will have to punch way about their weight to be in the quarterfinals.

Over all, this week could provide a pointer to where Indian badminton stands against the best in the game.