Tough draw for Indians at Badminton Worlds
New Delhi, July 17: India's competitors in the BWF World Badminton Championships 2018 in Nanjing, China, have been handed a difficult path in the draw.
Men's singles fifth seed Kidambi Srikanth has been clubbed in the fourth section which also has Malaysian veteran Lee Chong Wei, means they could clash in the quarter-finals.
Srikanth will open against Ireland's Nhat Nguyen and is likely to meet Indonesia's Jonatan Christie, 13th seed, in the third round.
H.S. Prannoy, on the other hand, may face Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent and Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen after being handed an easy opening round clash against Australia's Abhinav Manota. In the last eight stage, rising Chinese star Shi Yuqi may be Prannoy's opponent.
B Sai Praneeth will have to upset South Korean Son Wan Ho, while Sameer Verma meets Frenchman Lucas Corvee in the opening round.
In the women's singles category, third seed and three-time medallist P.V. Sindhu will open her campaign against the winner between Fitriani Fitriani or Linda Zetchiri. If the Indian wins the match, South Korean ninth Sung ji Hyun will be a stiff challenge for Sindhu while reigning world champion Nozomi Okuhara is a possible opponent in the quarter-finals for the Hyderabadi.
Sindhu's senior, Saina Nehwal will play either Swiss Sabrina Jaquet or Turkish Aliye Demirbag in the second round. After this round, she is expected to fight Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand and Olympic champion Carolina Marin in the next two rounds.
In the men's doubles, senior pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will open against Bulgarian combo of Daniel Nikolov and Ivan Rusev, while fast-rising Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty face Olympic bronze medallists Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge of England.
The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy will meet Chinese Taipei's Chiang Kai Hsin and Hung Shih Han in their first round.
The mixed doubles pair of Ashwini and Satwik will clash with Danish pair of N. Nøhr and S. Thygesen, while Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki will meet Czech combine of Jakub Bitman and Alzbeta Basova.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
