All England Open 2018: Tricky draws for Saina Nehwal and Sai Praneeth

Indian shuttlers will have tricky draw in the opening round of the reputed All England Open Championship 2018 as Saina Nehwal will face the World no. 1 tough player Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei. The tournament with the total prize money of 1 million dollars will be held from March 14 to 18 in Birmingham.

It has been tough for the world no. 11, who was an All England Open 2015 finalist, as she never registered victory over the Chinese Taipei girl in their last seven meetings and the recent loss being in the finals of the recently held Indonesia Open.

While, fourth seeded PV Sindhu would open her campaign against Thailand shuttler Pornpawee Chochuwong and would face the India Open champion Beiwen Zhang in the next round.

Among the men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth, the holder of four Super Series titles, will start the campaign against the Frenchman Brice Leverdez, while the Singapore Open winner B Sai Praneeth will face the former world no. 1 and veteran Son Wan Ho, and HS Prannoy who is recovering from his corn on his foot need to face the eighth seeded Chou Tien Chen of the Chinese Taipei in the opening round.

In the doubles event, Indonesia Open semi-finalists Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will face Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan, and if they get through the opening round they are likely to face Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark in the following round.

First Round Draws of the Indian players:

Women’s Singles:

Saina Nehwal vs Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei;

PV Sindhu vs Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand

Men’s Singles:

Kidambi Srikanth vs Brice Leverdez of France;

B Sai Praneeth vs Son Wan Ho of Korea;

HS Prannoy vs Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei

Women’s Doubles:

Ashwini Ponnappa/N Sikki Reddy vs Ayaka Takahashi/ Misaki Matsutomo of Japan;

J Meghana/Poorvisha S Ram vs Shibo Tanaka/Koharu Yonemoto of Japan

Men’s doubles:

Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj vs Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi;

B Sumeeth Reddy/Manu Atri vs Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge of England

Mixed doubles:

Pranaav Jerry Chopra/Sikki Reddy vs Marvin Emil Seidel/Linda Efler of Germany