PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen are set to lead India’s challenge at the Swiss Open 2024 badminton tournament, a BWF Super 300 event to be held at the St Jakobshalle arena in Basel, Switzerland, starting today.
The spotlight will be on two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu, who has been seeded fourth in the women’s singles category. She recently competed at the All England Open, reaching the second round before facing a defeat against world No. 1 An Se-young of South Korea.
Sindhu made her return to the BWF World Tour at the French Open, reaching the quarterfinals before losing to China’s Chen Yufei. Her Swiss Open campaign will kick off against German player Yvonne Li, whom she faced in the first round of the All England Open, where Li retired after losing the first game.
In women’s singles, Aakarshi Kashyap will also feature in the main draw, while Malvika Bansod starts from the qualifiers.
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles category, Lakshya Sen aims to continue his impressive form after reaching consecutive semi-finals at the French Open and All-England Open. He will face Malaysia’s Leong Jun Hao in his opening match, holding a positive 2-1 head-to-head record against the World No. 36 opponent.
Former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth will begin his campaign against Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu-wei, ranked 23rd in men’s singles. Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George will also participate in the main draw.
However, HS Prannoy has opted out of the Basel meeting. Additionally, the defending men’s doubles champions, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, will not be defending their title this year.
In women’s doubles, Tanisha Castro and Ashwini Ponnappa are seeded sixth and will face Indonesia’s Meilysa Trias Puspita Sari and Rachel Allessya Rose in their opening match. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, seeded eighth, will play against America’s Annie Xu and Kerry Xu in the first round.
India squad for Swiss Open 2024:
Men’s singles: Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, Kiran George, Priyanshu Rajawat
Men’s singles qualifiers: Sameer Verma, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran
Women’s singles: PV Sindhu, Aakarshi Kashyap
Women’s singles qualifiers: Malvika Bansod
Men’s doubles qualifiers: Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi
Women’s doubles: Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam, Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra
Women’s doubles qualifiers: Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker
Mixed doubles qualifiers: Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variath, Reddy B. Sumeeth and Reddy Sikki.
