Satwik and Chirag withdraw from Thailand Open, Saina will also not play
Commonwealth Games champion pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will miss the Thailand Open Super 300 badminton tournament as Satwik is unable to fully recover from a hip injury. Satwik had suffered an injury during the India Open Super 750 tournament earlier this month and had to withdraw midway from the tournament in New Delhi. Chirag, who is part of the world No. 6 pair, told PTI, “The injury is not fully recovered so will not play in Thailand.” ”
The top-seeded Indian pair, who had reached the semi-finals of the season-opening Malaysia Open Super 1000, will take on Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ching Heng and Yi Hong Wei in the first round. Former world number one Indian players Saina Nehwal and Malvika Bansod have also withdrawn from this two lakh 10 thousand dollar prize tournament. Saina was to face Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt whom she had defeated in the India Open. Malavika was to take on top seed and former world champion Ratchanoch Intanon.
In women’s singles, India will now be represented only by Anupama Upadhyay and Ashmita Chaliha, who will face each other in the first round. The world number 34 pair of Krishna Prasad Garga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala will spearhead the Indian challenge in the men’s doubles. Ishan Bhatnagar and Sai Prateek K will take on Zep Bey and eighth seed Lasse Molhede in the first round. In the men’s singles, the Indian challenge will be led by B Sai Praneeth. Former Singapore Open champion Praneeth, who has slipped to 51st in the world rankings, will face a tough fight in second seed Liu Guang Zhu of China in the first round.
Sameer Verma, who is making a comeback after recovering from injury, will take on sixth seed Li Shi Feng of China in the first round. Priyanshu Rajawat, who reached the main draw of the Indonesia Masters last week, will take on Korea’s Heo Kwang Hee while Odisha Open champion Kiran George will be up against Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei. Mithun Manjunath will take on fifth seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan.
Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist pair of Trisha Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will take on Japan’s Rena Miyaura and Ayako Sakuramoto, while Sruthi Mishra and N Sikki Reddy will take on top seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Ravinda Prajongjae of Thailand. Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa will be up against the Chinese pair of Tan Ning and Xia Yu Ting. In mixed doubles, B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, Rohan Kapoor and Sikki and Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha will take the court.
