With Saina Nehwal missing another event over fitness issues, P.V.
With Saina Nehwal missing another event over fitness issues, P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will spearhead the Indian challenge at the $120,000 German Grand Prix Gold that starts with the qualifiers in Mulheim an der Ruhr on Tuesday.
World no. 2 Saina, who had injured her ankle last year, is yet to play an international tournament in 2016 as she is trying to achieve full fitness ahead of the prestigious All England Championship.
In her absence, the onus will be on Sindhu, who clinched the Malaysia Masters early in the year, but has been going through a rough patch lately. She lost to young compatriot Ruthvika Shivani Gadde in the South Asian Games, before suffering losses to Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara and Korea’s Ji Hyun Sung at the Badminton Asia Championship.
The 20-year-old, who had also bowed out in the second round of the Syed Modi GPG after losing to Nitchaon Jindapol, will look to turn around things when she faces USA’s Rong Schafer in the opening round.
On the other hand, Srikanth has been in good form and guided the men’s team to a historic bronze medal at the BAC. The sixth seed takes on Japan’s Takuma Ueda in the first round.
Sameer Verma will meet Ukraine Dmytro Zavadsky and 11th seed Parupalli Kashyap faces Ukraine’s Artem Pochtarev in his opener.
