Indian badminton stars, such as P.V. Sindhu and H.S. Prannoy, are setting their sights on performing well at the upcoming Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament. They are hoping to move past the disappointment of the Sudirman Cup, where none of the top singles players emerged victorious during the critical matches against Chinese Taipei and Malaysia. India was defeated 4-1 and 5-0 by Taipei and Malaysia, respectively, resulting in an early exit from the world mixed team championships in China.
The doubles pairs also failed to deliver during the tournament, and so the Indian shuttlers will look for redemption, particularly with the Paris Olympic qualification in mind. Sixth seed Sindhu, who lost to Tokyo silver medallist Tai Tzu Ying and Goh Jin Wei last week, will play against Denmark’s Line Christophersen. Meanwhile, Prannoy will have a chance to settle the score with sixth seed Chou Tien Chen after his defeat by the Taipei player in Suzhou.
Kidambi Srikanth will also hope to regain some confidence by winning his opening round match against Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama, having lost his previous match against Malaysia. Lakshya Sen, who did not get to play any matches during the Sudirman Cup, will face former world champion Loh Kean Yew from Singapore. Fifth seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will take on Ben Lane and Sean Vendy in their opening round match, having fought hard but lost in both their matches in China.
Making their way through the qualification round are Malvika Bansod, Aakarshi Kashyap, B Sai Praneeth, Mithun Manjunath, and Priyanshu Rajawat.