Lucknow: Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal, who has been battling poor form for a long time, will be eyeing a rhythm in front of a home audience at the Syed Modi International Tournament starting here on Tuesday, while young male player Lakshya Sen would like to win the fifth title of the season. Three-time former champion Saina is battling illness and injuries in the current season, which has also shown an impact on her game. In six tournaments of this season, she could not progress beyond the first round. Their effort will be to leave the disappointment behind and end the season with the title. The 29-year-old Hyderabad-based player has already withdrawn from the Premier Badminton League (PBL) to keep herself fresh in the next season. He will face Chloe Burch of England in the first round of this Super 300 tournament. World champion PV Sindhu is not taking part in this tournament. This year, the 18-year-old who has won in tournaments such as the Scottish Open, SaarLorLux Open, Dutch Open, and Belgium International will be aiming to win the Super 300 tournament for the first time.
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According to the information received, this Indian player, who won the title of Scottish Open on Sunday, is close to making it to the top-40 for the first time in the ranking. He will face Thomas Roxel of France in the first round of Syed Modi International. Apart from Saina in the women's singles, Mugdha Agre will also present the Indian challenge, she will face Lianne Tan of Belgium in the first round. In the men's singles, 2016 winner Kidambi Srikanth, defending champion Sameer Verma and bronze medalist B Sai Praneeth of the World Championship will be strong contenders for the title. Srikanth, who is going to start his campaign against Vladimir Malkov of Russia, will have to try to end the two-year title drought. Fourth seed Praneeth will start his campaign against Iskander Zulkaranain of Malaysia while two-time champion Sameer compatriot Ajay Jayaram.
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It is known that Sameer's elder brother Saurabh will take on Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu in the first round. Parupalli Kashyap, a former Commonwealth Games champion and who won the tournament in 2012 and 2015, will take to the court against Lucas Carvi of France in the first round. HS Prannoy will begin his campaign against China's Youth Olympic champion Li Xi Feng. In men's doubles, Satvisairaj Rankereddy and Chirag Shetty will be strong contenders for the title here. The Indian pair, who won the title of Thailand Open Super 500, were runners-up in the French Open Super 750 tournament. In the first round, this Indian pair will face Chinese pair of DG Jian and Wang Chang. Manu Attri and Sumit Reddy, who won the men's doubles in the Infosys Foundation India International Badminton Tournament on Sunday, will also compete in this tournament.
