HYDERABAD: World number two Saina Nehwal, who has got a tough draw, meets the winner of Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei and a qualifier in the second round after getting a bye in the first round of the BWF World Championship from August 23 to 29 in Paris. The draws for the worlds took place in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
Seeded second in the championship, Saina, who lost in the quarterfinals in last year’s championship at Hyderabad, may run into 13th Ella Diehl of Russia in third round. If she clears the first two hurdles, Saina is likely to run into China’s sixth seed Shixian Wang or 11th seed Jie Yao of Netherlands in the quarterfinals. The other strong players in the bottom half are: third seed Xin Wang (China) and ninth seed Zhou Mi of Hong Kong. If all goes well, Saina has a potential clash with Xin Wang or Zhou Mi in the semifinals. According to chief coach Pullela Gopi Chand, it is a tough draw for Saina. “She has a tough match in the quarterfinals if she faces Shixian Wang,’’ he said.
Number one seed Yihan Wang (China), who too has a first round bye, has fourth seed Tine Baun (Denmark), ninth seed Eriko Hirose of Japan, seventh seed Wang Lin (China) and 12th seed Pui Yin Yip (Hong Kong) in the top half. India’s Aditi Mutatkar faces Eriko Hirose in the first round. Lu Lan of China is not defending her title.
Chetan faces Ong
In the men’s singles, national champion Chetan Anand, who is seeded 14th, faces Ong Zhao Ashton Chen of Singapore in the first round. The winner of this tie meet either Stephen Wojcikiewicz (Canada) or Dmytro Zavadsky of Ukraine in the next round. If Anand wins the second round, he may take on fourth seed and last year’s runners up Chen Jin in the third round.
Rising star P Kashyap begins his campaign against Tanongsak Saensombonsak of Thailand. Should Kashyap put it across the Thai player, he then clashes against the winner of 12th seed Kenichi Tago (Japan) and Petr Koukal (Czech) in the second round. There is a potential clash with fifth seed and former champion Taufiq Hidayat (Indonesia) in the third round.
Top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and three times champion Lin Dan, seeded third, are in the top half of the draw while second seed Peter Gade and Chen Jin in the bottom half. Ninth seed V Diju and Jwala Gutta, the most successful India’s mixed doubles pair, face Chris Adcock and Gabrielle White of England in the first round.