Saina, Kashyap to spearhead Indian challenge at Badminton Asia Championship

A rejuvenated Saina Nehwal and ace men’s shuttler Parupalli Kashyap will spearhead the Indian challenge at the USD 200,000 Badminton Asia Championship, which gets underway at the Wuhan Sports Center Gymnasium here tomorrow. Olympic bronze medallist Saina, who had skipped the Singapore Open Super Series to recharge her batteries after a gruelling month of March, has already sailed to the third round after getting a bye and a walk over in the first two rounds respectively. [caption id=“attachment_2204320” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Saina Nehwal. AP[/caption] The recently-crowned World No. 1, Saina, who played the All England, Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold and Malaysia Super Series last month, will fight against Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the third round. The girl from Hyderabad has beaten the world no. 10 twice in 2013. It is going to be a difficult ride for Saina as all the three Chinese – Li Xuerui, Yihan Wang and Shixian Wang – are competing at the ABC. However, Kashyap, who clinched the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold title in January this year, will take the court tomorrow and clash against Singapore’s Zi Liang Derek Wong. The Commonwealth Games champion has beaten Wong four times, the last being at the Syed Modi tournament. World No. 4 Kidambi Srikanth and Indonesian Masters winner HS Prannoy withdrew from the event because of injuries. Prannoy is recovering from a foot injury, while Srikanth is suffering from a shin pain in left leg. The men’s singles will also see defending champion, Lin Dan, a five-time world champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist, competing in a field that boosts of current World No. 1 Chen Long, Indonesia’s top gun, Tommy Sugiarto, uprising Tanongsak Seambongsuk from Thailand, and Kento Momota and Sho Sasaki from Japan. The Continental Championships will also see the return of two-time World Championship bronze medallist P V Sindhu after laying low last month due to a stress fracture on her left foot, which she developed during the 79th senior National championship at Vijayawada in February. The eighth seed from Hyderabad, who had won a bronze in the last edition, got a bye in the opening round and will take on Uzbekistan’s Anait Khurshudyan in the second round on Wednesday. 2010 Commonwealth Games champion pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, who clinched a bronze last year, will face Chinese Taipei’s Ya Ching Hsu and Yu Po Pai in the opening round tomorrow. In men’s doubles, Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Jerry Chopra will be up against fourth seeded Japanese pair of Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa in second round, while Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy B will clash with Ahmad Shekib Iqbal and Ahmad Faheem Yari of Afghanistan in the second round after getting a bye in the first. Mixed doubles Indian pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan also got a walk over in the first round. PTI