Favourable draw for Indians, Saina gets a bye in first round
By IANSTuesday, July 21, 2009
NEW DELHI - India’s world no.6 Saina Nehwal got a bye in the women’s singles first round of the World Badminton Championships to be held at her home town Hyderabad Aug 10-16.
For the sixth seed Saina it could be a smooth ride till the quarterfinals. In the third-round, she may face 10th seed Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva and if she overcomes her, she may run into second seeded Lin Wang of China in the quarterfinals.
The draw was made here Tuesday in the presence of Commonwealth Games Federation president Mike Fennell, Badminton World Federation’s vice-president Paisan Rangsikitpho and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi. Former All England champions Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand, national coach, were also present at the event.
Among other Indians, Sayali Gokhale will meet Jie Wao of The Netherlands in the first round and Aditi Mutatkar will face 11th seed German Juliane Schenk, a former European junior champion. Hong Kong’s Zhou Mi is the top seed while China’ Wang Lin is second.
In the men’s singles first round, India’s 15th seed Chetan Anand will face South Korean Ji Hoon Hong, Arvind Bhat will come across ninth seed Yu Hsing Hsieh of Chinese Taipei while P. Kashyap will take on Iran’s Ali Shahhoseini. Malaysia’s Lee Wei Chong has been seeded first while China’s Chen Jin is second.
Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas will lead the Indian challenge in the men’s doubles and will face 14th seeded Japanese pair Hayakawa Kenichi while the other Indian pair Jishnu Sanyal and Akshay Diwalkar will meet Thai duo Chalardchaleam Patipat and Narkthong Nuttaphon in the first round.
In the women’s doubles, Aparna Balan and Shruti Kurian got a bye in the first round. Balan will then team up with Arun Vishnu to start campaign against Japanese pair Hirata Noriyasu and Matsuo Shizuka in the mixed doubles while the eight seeded Indian pair of Diju Valiyaveetil and Jwala Gutta got a bye in the first round.
National coach said that Saina ward has got decent draw and she should target semis.
“Indians have got a favourable draw and should take advantage of the home turf and cause a few upsets,” he said.
