German Open 2022 badminton: PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth to lead India’s charge

Top Indian badminton players PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth will return to action at the German Open 2022 to be held in Mulheim, Germany from March 8 to 13.

PV Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, will be up against a formidable foe in Thailand's world No. 11 Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the first round of women’s singles.

If PV Sindhu overcomes a tricky first two rounds at the BWF Super 300 event, she could face Tokyo Olympic silver-medallist and the current world No.1 Tai Tzu-Ying in the quarter-finals. Tai Tzu-Ying had defeated PV Sindhu in the semi-finals of the Tokyo Olympics and enjoys a 14-5 head-to-head record against the Indian.

However, world No.7 PV Sindhu will be high on confidence having won the Syed Modi International Super 300 title in January. She had given the Odisha Open a miss and will be fresh going in for German Open.

Another Indian women’s badminton star Saina Nehwal, meanwhile, will face Clara Azurmendi in her opener.

Provided Saina Nehwal wins her first round, she could run into Ratchanok Intanon, the eighth seed from Thailand, next and reigning world champion from Japan Akane Yamaguchi in the last eight.

Among the Indian men, Kidambi Srikanth, seeded eighth in the tournament, will get his campaign underway against world No. 39 Brice Leverdez of France.

If Srikanth, who is also India’s highest-ranked men’s shuttler at world No. 11, gets past the initial stages, he could face world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the quarter-finals.

This will be the first real test for Kidambi Srikanth since winning the silver at world championships in December. The Indian shuttler had missed the Indian leg of the BWF events after testing positive for COVID-19.

The next best-ranked Indian men’s badminton player and in-form Lakshya Sen will start his German Open against Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen.

Lakshya Sen, currently world No. 12, had won bronze at the world championships followed by the India Open title in January. He could face fellow Indian HS Prannoy in the quarter-finals if both go past the first two rounds.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap will also be making a comeback after being sidelined with injury since November, 2021. He will take on unseeded Thai shuttler Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the first round.

The German Open 2022 will also see top Indian men’s and women’s doubles return to action.

After beating three-time world champion pair Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan of Indonesia for India Open title in January, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be up for challenge in what is the start of the month-long European leg of badminton events.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will take on the Chinese pair of Liu Yuche and Oui Xuanyi in the opener.

Meanwhile, the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy will face Japan’s Chiharu Shida and Nami Matsuyama, seeded sixth, in the first round.

The last two editions of the annual German Open badminton tournament were cancelled due to COVID-19. After the German Open, Indian badminton players will compete at the All England Open from March 16 and the Swiss Open which begins on March 22.