World Badminton Championships 2023: PV Sindhu gets first-round bye, Kidambi Srikanth to open vs Kenta Nishimoto

Indian badminton player PV Sindhu was handed a first-round bye in the women’s singles draw for the BWF World Championships 2023, scheduled in Copenhagen, Denmark, from August 21 to 27.

The World Badminton Championships 2023 draw was held at the Badminton World Federation headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday.

Former world champion PV Sindhu, seeded 16th at the Copenhagen meet, may, however, come up against Japanese ace Nozomi Okuhara, an old foe, in the second round. Interestingly, Okuhara beat Sindhu in the 2017 world badminton championships final but the Indian star emerged on top in the 2019 final at Basel.

Both Nozomi Okuhara and PV Sindhu have struggled for form of late.

Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, Indian shuttlers received favourable draws. Ninth seed HS Prannoy will open his campaign against Finland’s Kalle Koljonen, ranked 56th in the world. Lakshya Sen, the 11th seed, will open against world No. 110 Georges Julien Paul of Mauritius.

Kidambi Srikanth, 20th in the badminton world rankings, was unseeded in the draw and will face a much tougher opponent in Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto, ranked 15th. The Indian badminton player, however, boasts a 6-3 head-to-head record over the Japanese player.

Men’s doubles second seeds Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were handed a bye in the opening round and so were Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, the 15th seeds in women’s doubles.

PV Sindhu, the 2019 world champion, silver medallist in 2017 and 2018 and bronze medal winner in 2013 and 2014, is India’s most successful player in the history of the world badminton championships.

BWF World Championships 2023: Draws for Indian badminton players

Men’s singles

HS Prannoy vs Kalle Koljonen (Finland)

Lakshya Sen vs Georges Julien Paul (Mauritius)

Kidambi Srikanth vs Kenta Nishimoto (Japan)

Women’s singles

PV Sindhu - bye

Men’s doubles

Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy - bye

Women’s doubles

Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand - bye

Ashwini Bhat K/Shikha Gautam vs Cheryl Seinen/Debora Jille (Netherlands)

Mixed doubles

Rohan Kapoor/N Sikki Reddy vs Adam Hall/Julie Macpherson (Scotland)

Venkat Prasad/Juhi Dewangan vs Jones Ralfy Jansen/Linda Efler (Germany)