India Open 2023 badminton entry list: PV Sindhu, Olympic champions Viktor Axelsen, Chen Yufei expected
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, defending India Open champion Lakshya Sen and doubles pair Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy headline home challenge.
Tokyo 2020 men’s singles champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and women’s singles gold medallist Chen Yufei of China are among the badminton stars expected to play at the India Open 2023 in New Delhi from January 17 to 22.
The India Open badminton was elevated to BWF Super 750 event from the previous Super 500 status by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) earlier this year. It will be held at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi.
India Open will be the second event on the BWF World Tour 2023 calendar with the season kicking off with the Malaysia Open in the second week of January.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu is expected to be fit at the start of the next season and will be India’s entry in the women’s singles event at India Open.
Reigning world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, former world champions Nozomi Okuhara of Japan and Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand along with An Se-Young of South Korea will be top challengers in women’s singles apart from Chen Yufei.
Defending India Open men’s singles champion Lakshya Sen and former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth will lead India’s challenge in men’s singles. World No.2 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, world No. 9 Kento Momota of Japan and Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, 10th in the BWF world rankings, have also given their initial confirmation.
In men’s doubles, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, world No. 7, will be defending their title this year. The duo won its maiden India Open last year by getting the better of Indonesia’s three-time world champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in the final.