Tough Korea test awaits PV Sindhu & Co.

Indian shuttlers, sans world no. 1 Saina Nehwal, will have to put in the hard yards in their campaign at the $600,000 Korea Super Series starting with the qualifiers in Seoul on Tuesday.

Saina didn’t send her entry for the tournament and in her absence the onus will be on the others, including two-time World Championship bronze medallist P.V. Sindhu, world no. 4 Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap, to earn India some good results.

However, it will be an uphill task for the shuttlers as they face tough rivals in the tournament to be held at SK Handball Stadium.

World no. 14 Sindhu is up against former world champion Ratchanok Intanon in the opening round of the women’s singles. The world no. 5 Thai, seeded third, has a 3-0 record against Sindhu, who lost in straight games all three times in 2013.

In the men’s singles, Srikanth will meet 11th ranked Chinese Tian Houwei, while world no. 8 Kashyap takes on Hong Kong’s Wei Nan. Indonesia Masters winner H.S. Prannoy will fight it out against seventh seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.

Dutch Open winner Ajay Jayaram will square up against Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, seeded sixth. The Indian will look to take inspiration from his lone victory over the Danish shuttler during the Indonesian Open in 2012.

However, things have changed drastically ever since as Axelsen rose to the world no. 6, Jayaram’s ranking has dropped to 31st. Moreover, Axelsen is in red-hot form after reaching the final in Japan last week.