Indian shuttlers, sans World No.1 Saina Nehwal, will have to put in the hard yards when they start their campaign at the $600,000 Korea Super Series starting with the qualifiers here on Tuesday.
Saina didn’t send her entries for the Korea Open and in her absence the onus will be on other top shuttlers, including two-time World Championship bronze medallist P V Sindhu, World No. 4 Kidambi Srikanth and Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, to earn India some good results.
However, it will be an uphill task for the Indian shuttlers as they face some of their toughest rivals in the tournament to be held at SK Handball Stadium.
World No. 14 Sindhu will face former world champion Ratchanok Intanon in the opening round of Women’s singles competition. The World No. 5 Thai, seeded third, has a 3-0 record against Sindhu, who lost in straight-games all the three times in the matches which were all held in 2013.
In men’s singles, Srikanth will meet China’s Tian Houwei. The world No. 11 had beaten the Indian twice this year at the Australian Open and Malaysian Open and the 22-year-old will be eager to avenge the losses.
World No. 8 Kashyap will take on Hong Kong’s Wei Nan. The Indian had beaten him during the China Open in a gruelling three-game match last year.
In women’s doubles, Sikki Reddy and Pradnya Gadre will lead Indian challenge in the absence of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa when they face Japanese pair of Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito. Jwala had pulled out of the tournament because of health issues.
India bag bronze in Archery wc
Medellin (Colombia): In the absence of regulars, India have concluded their campaign with a solitary bronze medal in the men’s compound team event at the Archery World Cup Stage 4 here.
The Indian trio of Sarvesh Pareek, Sandeep Kumar and Isaiah Rajender Sanam, who were seeded sixth, beat a higher ranked Venezuela 231-222 in a one-sided bronze playoff yesterday.
India were also in the hunt for a second bronze medal in the compound mixed pair event where inexperienced duo of Pareek and Trisha Deb lost to top-ranked USA’s Reo Wilde and lexi Keller 150-156. In the men’s compound team event, both the teams were locked 58-all after the first end before the Indians snatched a three-point lead against the fourth seeded trio of Nelson Torres, leandro Rojas and Eduardo Gonzalez who struggled after a good start. The Indian team held on to their lead with some consistent shooting, that included five closest to the centre, to settle the issue as the Venezuela opponents failed to bounce straight back.
India secures bronze in double trap
The Indian men’s double trap team comprising Mohd Asab, Ankur Mittal and Sangram Dahiya today won a bronze medal at the ISSF Shotgun World Championship taking place in lonato, Italy. The third place finish gave India its first medal of the Championship. The trio shot a combined score of 400 to pip hosts Italy, who finished fourth with a total of 398. The team from Great Britain won the gold with a score of 414 while Russia claimed the silver, finishing on 406.