CHENNAI: The Commonwealth Games is done and dusted. With landmark performances across disciplines, the Indian contingent, as a whole, had an exceptional campaign. Now, the focus shifts to badminton players.
With India hosting the BWF World Championships — second only to the Olympics — after a gap of 17 years, the likes of PV Sindhu will be in the spotlight. After a lean period, the shuttlers, including Sindhu and doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, have shown their ability to craft big wins in recent months and they will be hoping to rise to the occasion during the marquee meet, which is set to be held from August 17 to 23 in New Delhi. Sindhu, in fact, has the chance to rewrite history. With a tally of five, she currently shares the record for most medals with Zhang Ning of China in the women's singles category. "I would really want to do that (medal) and doing so at home would make it special," Sindhu had said after capturing the Japan Open crown last month.
Sindhu has been seeded ninth in women's singles category while Satwik and Chirag, who bagged the Singapore Open in May, are fifth seeds in the men's doubles category. After their Singapore success, the duo had injury concerns and they had pulled out mid-match in the following two tournaments in Indonesia and Japan. The Indian fans will be hopeful that they can shake off their lack of match practice and make a strong run. In the last championships in Paris, the pair had returned with a bronze medal.
The Indian team will have at least two entries per category across disciplines. The seeds were decided as per rankings on July 28.
Lakshya Sen, a former medallist at this event, will be another shuttler to keep a close eye on. After his second-place finish at the All England Open in early March, Lakshya has been a hit and a miss. With home fans behind him, Lakshya will be looking to stand out. Ayush Shetty, one of the talented youngsters in the team, has also had a rough phase after his historic run during the Asia Championships in April. Both will be hopeful of a favourable draw, which is set to be announced on Wednesday.
Shi Yu Qi of China (men's singles) and An Se Young of South Korea (women's singles) are the top seeds in their respective categories.