PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal get 1st round byes at BWF World Championships

All 16 seeds in the BWF World Championships -- including Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu -- received byes. In men’s singles, eighth-seeded Kidambi Srikanth will open his campaign against Sergey Sirant while Sameer Verma will take on Spain’s Pablo Abian

Indian badminton aces PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal have both received first round byes at the BWF World Championships to be held at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow from August 21 to 27.

PV Sindhu (left) is the only Indian ever to have won two medals, both bronze, at the BWF World Championships, while Saina is only Indian to have played a World Championships final where she lost to Spain’s Carolina Marin and settled for silver (2015). (HT Photo)

Seeded fourth, Sindhu will either face South Korean Kim Hyo Min or Hadia Hosny of Egypt in the second round. Her first real competition will likely come in the quarter-finals in the form of Chinese fifth seed Sun Yu. PV Sindhu is the only Indian ever to have won two medals, both bronze, at the prestigious annual event.

Saina Nehwal, on the other hand, will either take on Swiss Sabrina Jaquet or Ukraine’s Natalya Voytsekh in the women’s singles second round. However, the 12th seeded Indian is likely to face a tough contest against South Korean second seed Sung Ji Hyun in the third round.

Saina is only Indian to have played a World Championships final when she lost the summit clash to Spain’s Carolina Marin, settling for a silver in 2015.

Rituparna Das and Tanvi Lad have also earned direct entries at the tournament and will face Finnish Airi Mikkela and England’s Chloe Birch in their first round matches, respectively.

All 16 seeds have received a bye in women’s singles.

Meanwhile in men’s singles, eighth seeded Kidambi Srikanth will open his campaign against Sergey Sirant while Sameer Verma will take on Spain’s Pablo Abian. B. Sai Praneeth, seeded 15, and 13th seed Ajay Jayaram will be up against Hong Kong’s Wei Nan and Austria’s Luka Wraber in the opening round.

Manu Attri/B. Sumeeth Reddy, MR Arjun/ Shlok Ramchandran and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty are the three Indian pairs which have got direct entry in men’s doubles.

In women’s doubles, Sanjana Santosh/Arathi Sara Sunil, Meghana Jakkampudi/Poorvisha S Ram and Ashwini Ponnappa/N Sikki Reddy will look to make their mark in the Scottish capital.

There will be four Indian pairs participating in mixed doubles with Pranaav Jerry Chopra/N Sikki Reddy getting a first round bye for being seeded 15th.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Maneesha K, Yogendran Khrishnan/ Prajakta Sawant and B Sumeeth/Ashwini Ponnappa have also got direct entries in the category.