SEOUL (Korea): After a quarterfinal finish at Japan last week, K Srikanth will look to put another good show at the Korea Open when he spearheads the Indian challenge in the USD 600,000 Super Series badminton event starting with the qualifiers, here tomorrow.
Playing his first event after the Rio Olympics, Srikanth entered the quarterfinals before losing to World No. 15 Marc Zweibler and the Indian will look to better his result when he starts his campaign against Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent in the opening round on Wednesday. "It is a good draw. I just hope to play well," Srikanth said.
Commonwealth Games champion P Kashyap will once again start India's proceedings when he takes on Malaysia's Goh Soon Huat in the qualifier at the Seong-nam Indoor Stadium. The 30-year-old from Hyderabad had played a fierce match against fellow Indian Srikanth before going down narrowly and will look to keep making gaint strides as he makes a comeback after missing action due to a long injury lay-off. World No. 18 Ajay Jayaram, who had to retire midway against Srikanth in Japan after hurting his left ankle, has recovered from the injury and will be playing Korea's Jeon Hyeok Jin in his tournament opener.
Among others in fray, Swiss Open champion H S Prannoy will square off against Chinese Taipei's Tzu Wei Wang, while Canada Open winner B Sai Praneeth will meet another Chinese Taipei shuttler in Hsu Jen Hao. "I played well in Japan. Also against Victor the quality of the game was very good. I was leading 19-18 in second and though I lost, I felt I was playing much better. So hope to do well," Prannoy said. In women's singles, Tanvi Lad will be up against Denmark's Anna Thea Madsen in the opening round.