PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal gear up for China Open

Rio Olympic silver-medallist and ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal among other shuttlers from the country will look for glory when they begin their campaign at the USD 700,000 China Open badminton tournament in Beijing on Tuesday. 

Sixth-seeded Sindhu, who bowed out in the pre-quarterfinals of the Denmark Open last month, will kickstart her campaign at the upcoming tournament against Yvonne Li of Germany. 

Earlier in August, Sindhu made the country proud by becoming the first-ever Indian shuttler to clinch a BWF World Championships gold with a comfortable straight games win over Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the final of the 2019 edition of the prestigious tournament. 

Meanwhile, Nehwal--who too suffered early exits in three back-to-back tournaments in China, Korea and Denmark-- will look to regain her form when she locks horns with Cai Yan Yan of China in the opening round. 

In the men's singles event, World Championships bronze-medallist B. Sai Praneeth will also look to begin his campaign on a winning note when he takes on Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia.

Besides Praneeth, Sameer Verma and H.S. Prannoy will face Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu and Denmark's Rasmus Gemke, respectively in the opening round. 

Parupalli Kashyap--the other Indian shuttler in the fray--will meet Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand for a place in the second round of the China Open. 

Meanwhile, ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth--who was scheduled to take on reigning two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan in the first round--has decided to pull out of the event. 

India will also look for a title in the men's doubles and mixed doubles events.

The Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who made it to the summit showdown of the French Open last month, will take on the Canadian pair of Joshua Hurlburt-Yu and Josephine WU.

Meanwhile, India's Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra will lock horns with Taiwan's Wang Chi-Lin and Cheng Chi Ya in the first round of women's singles event.