Laksya Sen in action©Twitter
Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth has withdrawn from the German Open Super 300 badminton tournament, which begins qualifying on Tuesday. While last edition finalist Srikanth will be missing, Lakshya Sen hopes to get the most out of himself this time as he is at the forefront of the Indian challenge. Sen, and newly crowned national champion Mithun Manjunath, will be the best Indian players. Sen, the reigning Commonwealth Games gold medalist, had beaten world number 1 Viktor Axelsen in the semi-finals, but lost the final in the last edition.
This time, the 21-year-old from Almora, seeded sixth, will face Frenchman Christo Popov in the opening round and is expected to face Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the quarter-finals if he can make it through the early rounds.
“Maybe I’ll meet Lee Zii Jia in the quarter-finals, so I’m looking forward to it. I’ve done everything I can to start this week in the best form, so I’m hoping to get some good momentum for All England,” said Sen.
Manjunath will be confident after his first national crown and will try to keep the momentum going as he opens against former world champion Loh Kean Yew.
Malvika Bansod and Saina Nehwal are also in the women’s singles draw, while the mixed doubles of Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeeth Reddy, who had played at the 2022 CWG, are also in disarray.
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