Birmingham [UK], March 11 : Following their triumph at the French Open, India's top-ranked men's doubles badminton pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be turning their attention to the All England Open Badminton Championships 2024 starting Tuesday, which will feature some of the nation's top stars.
The All England Open tournament is a Badminton World Federation World 1000 event and the most prestigious tournament of the entire BWF World Tour calendar. Only two Indian players have previously captured some gold at the event, Padukone (1980 men's singles) and Pullela Gopichand (2001 men's singles), as per Olympics.com.
'Sat-Chi' as the popular Indian pair is known, will be aiming to join the elite company of the two legendary shuttlers. However, they will be facing three-time world champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in the opening round, against whom the Indians are trailing 3-4.
The two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, who is playing her second BWF tournament this year, will be India's premier challenger in women's singles. After making a return following an injury, Sindhu will be aiming to win the entire thing but the world number one and defending champion An Se Young could be waiting for her.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, the semifinalists at the last two editions of the competition, will be the country's top challenge in women's doubles.
In the men's singles competition, India will be playing four players, world No. 7 HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and Priyanshu Rajawat. Srikanth will have to overcome the top-ranked male star and current Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark to make it to the second round.
The tournament, ending on March 17, will be offering qualifying ranking points for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window started on May 1.
-All England Open 2024 badminton: India squad
Men's singles: Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, Priyanshu Rajawat
Women's singles: PV Sindhu, Aakarshi Kashyap
Men's doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty
Women's doubles: Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda.
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