Korea Open Badminton: Srikanth leads Indian challenge

After a quarter-final finish in Japan last week, K. Srikanth will look to put up another good show at the Korea Open where he spearheads the Indian challenge in the $600,000 Super Series badminton event starting with the qualifiers, here on Tuesday.

Playing his first event after the Rio Olympics, Srikanth entered the quarter-finals before losing to world no. 15 Marc Zweibler and the Indian will look to better his result when he starts his campaign against Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent in the opening round on Wednesday.

“It is a good draw. I just hope to play well,” Srikanth said.

Commonwealth Games champion P. Kashyap will once again start India’s proceedings when he takes on Malaysia’s Goh Soon Huat in the qualifier at the Seong-nam Indoor Stadium.

The 30-year-old from Hyderabad lost narrowly in a fierce match against Srikanth and will look to keep making strides as he makes a comeback after missing from action with a long injury lay-off.

World no. 18 Ajay Jayaram, who had to retire midway against Srikanth in Japan after hurting his left ankle, has recovered and will be playing Korea’s Jeon Hyeok Jin in his tournament opener.

Swiss Open champion H.S. Prannoy will square off against Chinese Taipei’s Tzu Wei Wang, while Canada Open winner B. Sai Praneeth will meet another Chinese Taipei shuttler in Hsu Jen Hao.

“I played well in Japan. Also against Victor the quality of the game was very good. I was leading 19-18 in second and though I lost, I felt I was playing much better. So hope to do well,” Prannoy said.

In the women’s singles, Tanvi Lad will be up against Denmark’s Anna Thea Madsen in the opening round.