Badminton Asia Championships 2022: PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen chase elusive title - watch live

The Badminton Asia Championships 2022 gets underway at the Muntinlupa Sports Complex in Manila, the Philippines from Tuesday.

The continental badminton event is coming back after a two-year hiatus. The last two editions were called off due to COVID-19. The Manila meet, which ends on May 1, will be the 40th edition of the tournament.

Dinesh Khanna’s men singles gold in 1965 was the only time an Indian badminton player managed to clinch the top podium at the continental championships. Among the current crop of players, Saina Nehwal (2010, 2016, 2018) and PV Sindhu (2014) have won bronze medals.

Each country will have a maximum of four representatives in each of the categories - men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The winners in each category will earn 12,000 BWF World Ranking points. 

India’s Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, along with Aakarshi Kashyap and Malvika Bansod form India’s challenge in the women’s singles this year. 

India’s highest-ranked men’s badminton player Lakshya Sen, world championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth and 2019 worlds bronze winner B Sai Praneeth will vie for the title in men’s singles. HS Prannoy, meanwhile, who won bronze at the 2018 edition of the Asia Championships, had to withdraw due to injury.

However, Indian players in men’s singles, including world No. 9 Lakshya Sen, will have their task cut out with top players across Asia competing at the event.

Defending champion and world no. 2 Kento Momota of Japan, world No. 5 Anthony Ginting of Indonesia, former All England Open champion Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, and the reigning world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore are all in the fray for the men’s singles title.

The women’s singles field will be without world No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying but defending champion and world no. 2 Akane Yamaguchi and world No. 5 Nozomi Okuhara of Japan are expected to give world No. 7 PV Sindhu a tough challenge.

World No. 4 An Se-young of South Korea, who defeated PV Sindhu for the Korea Open title earlier this month, will also feature in the women’s singles event.

Men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles events will also take place.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be India’s best hope in men’s doubles. Seeded third, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will, however, face a stiff challenge from top seeds and world No. 2 Mohammed Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia and second seeds Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan.

India’s top women’s doubles pairs, N Sikki Reddy-Ashwini Ponnappa and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand won’t participate.

Both N Sikki Reddy and Gayatri Gopichand suffered injuries last week during the national selection trials. Their partners Ashwini Ponnappa and Treesa Jolly withdrew consequently.

Where to watch Badminton Asia Championships 2022 live in India?

The Badminton Asia Championships 2022 matches will be telecast live on the Sony TEN 2 and Sony TEN 2 HD TV channels in India from the quarter-finals onwards.

Live streaming of the Badminton Asia Championships 2022 will be available on the official Badminton Asia YouTube channel from April 26 to 29 and on the SonyLIV platform from April 29 to May 1.

Badminton Asia Championships 2022: Indian team

Men’s singles: Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth

Women’s singles: PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod

Men’s doubles: Krishna Prasad Garaga-Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila, Attri Manu-B Sumeeth Reddy

Women’s doubles: Ashwini Bhat-Shikha Gautam, Simran Singhi-Ritika Thaker

Mixed doubles: Ishaan Bhatnagar-Tanisha Crasto, Venkat Gaurav Prasad-Juhi Dewangan

Badminton Asia Championships 2022 schedule and live India times

All times are in Indian Standard Time (IST)

Tuesday, April 26: Qualification & Preliminaries - 6.30 AM IST onwards

Wednesday, April 27: Preliminaries - 6.30 AM IST onwards

Thursday, April 28: Round of 16 - 6.30 AM IST onwards

Friday, April 29: Quarter-finals - 1.30 PM IST onwards

Saturday, April 30: Semi-finals - 10:30 AM IST onwards

Sunday, May 1: Finals - 10:30 AM IST onwards