Taipei. Recovering from a semi-final defeat in Indonesia, HS Prannoy will lead the Indian challenge at the Taipei Open badminton tournament starting here on Tuesday. World number nine Prannoy has been seeded ninth here and will take on a qualifier in the men’s singles first round of this BWF World Tour Super 300 event. Prannoy, who won the Malaysia Masters Super 300 title last month, put up an impressive show at the Super 1000 tournament Indonesia Open to reach the semi-finals where he lost 15-21 15-21 to reigning world number one and reigning champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark. Had to face defeat.
In the men’s singles, Mairaba Luwang Mesnam, Kiran George, Satish Kumar Karunakaran, Mithun Manjunath and S Shankar Muthusamy Subramanian will also challenge. Subhankar Dey and Parupalli Kashyap will take part in the qualifiers. In women’s singles, London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal will look to find form while Malvika Bansod, Akarshi Kashyap and Rutwika Shivani Gadde will also be in contention for the title. Saina will face Thailand’s Pornpicha Choekivong in the first round, while Malvika will face third seed Beiwen Zheng. Men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who became the first Indian pair to win a Super 1000 tournament, will not take part in the tournament in Taipei.
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In his absence, the eighth seeded pair of Krishna Prasad Garga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala will spearhead the Indian challenge in the men’s doubles. The pair will take on Vinson Chew and Joshua Yuan of America in the first round. The lone Indian pair of Rituparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda will be on court in women’s doubles, while Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy and Navneet Bocka and Priya Konzengbam will challenge in mixed doubles.
