The Indian badminton team, spearheaded by Trisa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, is set to compete in the US Open BWF World Tour Badminton Tournament. The women’s doubles duo, currently ranked world number 24, will lead the Indian contingent in the absence of players who have qualified for the upcoming Paris Olympics.
With the Olympics less than a month away, top Indian players such as P.V. Sindhu, HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Ashwini Ponnappa, and Tanisha Crasto have opted to skip this tournament to focus on their preparations. This scenario paves the way for Trisa and Gayatri to take centre stage.
Trisa and Gayatri have been seeded second in this Super 300 event, following their impressive performance as runners-up at the Singapore Open Super 750 in May-June. Their high seeding has granted them a direct berth into the semi-finals, where they will compete against the unseeded Chinese Taipei pair of Sei Pei Shen and Hung En-ju. The top-seeded duo in the women’s doubles draw is the Japanese pair, Rin Iwanaga and Kei Nakanishi, who are ranked world number 10.
In men’s singles, eighth seed Priyanshu Rajawat leads the Indian challenge and will kick off his campaign against Yan Loda from the Czech Republic. Alongside him, Ayush Shetty and S Shankar Muthuswamy Subramaniam will also represent India. Shetty is set to face Singapore’s Jia Heng Jason Teh, while Muthuswamy will start his tournament against a qualifier.
The women’s singles draw features seventh seed Malvika Bansod as the top Indian contender. She will begin her journey against Estonia’s Kristin Kuba. Another Indian in the women’s singles, unseeded Tanya Hemant, is slated to play fifth seed Wen Chi Yu from Chinese Taipei in her opening match.
In men’s doubles, the pair of Krishna Prasad Garga and Sai Prateek K have been seeded sixth. They will commence their tournament against the unseeded Irish duo, Scott Gildea and Paul Reynolds. Meanwhile, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde are the sole Indian representatives in mixed doubles, facing Alexander Dunn and Julie McPherson in their first-round match.
This tournament presents an important opportunity for the Indian players to showcase their talents on the international stage in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics.
