Malaysia Open: Lakshya Vs Prannoy In First Round Again, Sindhu Faces Carolina Marin
On Tuesday, the enhanced Malaysia Open Super 1000 will kick off the start of the international badminton season for 2023. As the top players want to transfer the energy of 2022 into a significant year that has the Asian Games, Asian Championships, and the beginning of Olympic qualification, the tournament will serve as the start of a big season for Indian badminton.
The first tournament of the season also sees the comeback of PV Sindhu, the top player in India, following a six-month injury absence-the longest of her professional career.
Lakshya Sen and H.S. Prannoy will once again play early in the Indian singles players' schedule, while Sindhu will begin her match against Carolina Marin.
Here are the Indian badminton stars' draws and prospects at the Malaysia Open:
Singles for Men
Kenta Nishimoto Vs Kidambi Srikanth
HS Prannoy Vs Lakshya Sen
Prannoy stated that Lakshya Sen "appears to want to see only us playing against one other in all tournaments," which is about all that can be said about this draw.
After meeting each other five times in 2022, the top two Indian men's singles players will face off in the opening round of the first two events of 2023. Despite Prannoy being ranked as India's No. 1 in the most recent unfrozen rankings, which means he will be seeded at future competitions, this is the case.
There are still more Lakshya Vs Prannoy matches to play, with the younger player now holding a 3-2 advantage in their head-to-head series. The winner of the match between Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus and Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo will play the winner of the contest in Malaysia. Second-seeded Lee Zii Jia is the other seed in the quarter (after seventh-seeded Lakshya), and he begins his campaign against rising Japanese talent Kodai Naraoka.
Although they last competed in 2019, Srikanth opens the other half of the draw against Kenta Nishimoto, against whom he has a 5-1 record. If he triumphs, Jonathan Christie, the fifth seed, might be his opponent in the second round, while Viktor Axelsen, the top seed, might face him in the quarterfinals.
Women's Singles
PV Sindhu Vs Carolina Marin
Saina Nehwal Vs Han Yue
Aakarshi Kashyap Vs Wen Chi Hsu
Malvika Bansod Vs An Se Young
Despite the draw, India will have four competitors in the women's singles this time, which is encouraging.
Sixth-seeded Sindhu will face Carolina Marin, an old rival who has been recovering from an injury since last year, in her first match since winning the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in August. Marin has a 9-5 record versus Sindhu and has triumphed in their last three meetings. The Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei will play Yeo Jia Min or Pornpawee Chochuwong as the other seed in the quarter.
China's Han Yue, with whom Saina Nehwal has played once before, will be her opponent. The third-seeded Tai Tzu Ying, who has a 15-5 record against the Indian, will be her opponent if she prevails. In the quarter, He Bing Jiao is the other seed.
Wen Chi Hsu of Chinese Taipei will square up against Aakarshi Kashyap in the first match of their encounter. If she prevails, she will compete against He Bing Jiao, the fifth seed.
Malvika Bansod will face a challenging start after being paired with Korean second seed An Se Young. If she follows through, she will take on Yvonne Li Vs Goh Jin Wei's victor.
Rankireddy and Shetty are competing against Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Wan Ho.
Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae are competing against Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala.
India's prospects of winning the competition's top prize, at No. 5, are in the men's doubles. Both Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy The seventh seeds begin their sole encounter against Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Wan Ho of South Korea, who they defeated last year on their way to winning the French Open trophy. The Indonesian duo Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana, the current All England champions but with a 0-2 record versus the Indian duo in 2022, could be their opponents in the second round.
The biggest obstacle for them will be a probable quarterfinal game against rivals Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, who are home favourites and their opponents they have yet to defeat in seven meetings. In fact, Satwik admitted to ESPN that one of his objectives for 2023 is to defeat the Malaysian pair. Can it work this time?
Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala, the other Indian team competing, will open the match against Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae. They won the Thomas Cup. In the second round, the winners will take on top seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi.
Women's Doubles
Yeung Nga Ting and Yeung Pui Lam Vs Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand
Supissara Paewsampran and Putita Supajirakul Vs Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam.
In their first encounter, CWG bronze medalists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will face Yeung Nga Ting and Yeung Pui Lam of Hong Kong. If they triumph, they will face their arch-enemy Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan, the eighth seeds. Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan, the top seeds, are also in this group.
Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam, the other Indian pair in the draw, begin their match against Supissara Paewsampran and Putita Supajirakul of Thailand. The teams have never faced off before.
