Kidambi Srikanth Pulls Out, Lakshya Sen Top Indian Contender At German Open

Kidambi Srikanth, a former world number one, has withdrawn from the German Open Super 300 badminton competition, which begins with qualifiers on Tuesday. Lakshya Sen is leading the Indian challenge, therefore Srikanth, who finished as the finalist in the last competition, will not be competing this time. The top Indian players will be Sen and freshly crowned national champion Mithun Manjunath. Sen, the current Commonwealth Games gold champion, beat Viktor Axelsen, the world's best, in the quarterfinals of the previous competition, but fell short in the final. This time, the sixth-seeded player from Almora, Canada, will play France's Christo Popov in the first round  and, if he survives the first round, is predicted to play top seed Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the quarterfinals. "I'm anticipating it since Lee Zii Jia may be one of my quarterfinal opponents. I've done everything I can to get ready for this week in the greatest form, so I'm hoping to get some momentum before the All England, "said Sen. After winning his first national championship, Manjunath will be overjoyed and eager to continue the winning streak as he takes on former world champion Loh Kean Yew in the opening round. In addition to Malvika Bansod and Saina Nehwal, the mixed doubles team of Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy, who competed at the 2022 CWG, is also in the women's singles draw.