Guwahati Masters 2024 badminton: Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto return to defend title
A total of 461 players from 20 countries will slug it out for the title over the next five days.
Badminton
Defending women’s doubles champions Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto along with the talented men’s singles Priyanshu Rajawat will look to fly high the Indian tri-colour at the Guwahati Masters 2024 badminton tournament this week.
Ashwini-Tanisha and Rajawat have been given the top billing in their respective events. Indian shuttlers would hope to repeat last week’s showing at the Syed Modi International Super 300 where the hosts had a representative in all the five finals and won three of them.
The Guwahati Masters is a Super 100 and is the second edition of the badminton tournament.
Apart from men’s singles and women’s doubles, the Indian mixed doubles combination of Satish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath are seeded No. 1 while a lot will be expected from men’s doubles second seeds Hariharan Aasakarunan and R Ruban Kumar.
“The idea of hosting the Super 100 is to provide the young Indian talent a platform to showcase their skills,” said tournament’s organising secretary Omar Rashid.
“We are hoping that a few players will grab this opportunity and not just showcase their talent but build the foundation that will elevate their career from here on,” Rashid added,
A total of 461 players from 20 countries are to participate in the tournament with the main draw starting from Wednesday.
All eyes will also be on the performance of new mixed doubles combination of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, who recently reached the final of the Syed Modi international earlier in the week.
In the women’s singles, the Indian badminton challenge will be shouldered by the likes of Unnati Hooda and national silver medallist Tanvi Sharma.
In the 2023 edition of the Guwahati Masters, Yohanes Saut Marcellyno of Indonesia won the men’s singles title while Lalinrat Chaiwan of Thailand claimed the women’s crown.
Malaysia’s Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal sealed the men’s doubles title and Singapore duo Terry Hee and Jessica Tan emerged triumphant in the mixed doubles event.