World No. 1 Chen Yufei and defending men’s champion Viktor Axelsen will headline a star-studded international contingent when the 10th India Open Super 500 badminton tournament will begin here on March 24.
With the Olympic qualification cut-off set to end on April 26, the $400,000 tournament will see a galaxy of stars, including eight of the world’s top 10 women singles and three of the top 10 men’s singles players.
A number of top Chinese players are expected to participate in the event.
Besides Yufei, world No. 8 He Bingjiao and former All England champion Shi Yu Qi are the other stars of the Chinese squad who are expected to compete.
Yufei will be leading eight of the world’s top 10 women’s singles shuttlers. The others are Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, China’s He Bingjiao, Spain’s Carolina Marin, Korea’s An Se Young, Canada’s Michelle Li, three-time champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand and P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal.
While Axelsen will be gunning for his third title, he will have to contend with fellow top-10 players, B. Sai Praneeth and China’s Shi Yuqi.
For Saina and K. Srikanth the tournament will be crucial as they look to gain valuable points and materialise their Olympic dreams.
P. Kashyap, H.S. Prannoy, Sourabh Verma, Sameer Verma and Lakshya Sen are the other Indians who will present their challenge in the singles main draw. For Sindhu, it will be a perfect battleground to test herself against the world’s best in front of home supporters.
