BWF World Championships: PV Sindhu Receives Round 1 Bye, Kidambi Srikanth To Play Kenta Nishimoto

Two-time Olympic medallist shuttler PV Sindhu and men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty received first-round byes in the BWF World Championships 2023 draw held here on Thursday. This year's BWF World Championships will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark from August 21 to 27. Sindhu, who won the women's singles world title in 2019, however, has been handed a tough draw and she might face Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon and top seed An Se Young of Korea as they are grouped in the top half of the draw.

Sindhu is the only Indian to feature in the women's singles competition.

The men's doubles combination of World Championships bronze medallists Satwik and Chirag achieved a career-best world no.2 ranking last month following their title triumph in Korea Open and are in the form of their life.

India's men's singles challenge will be led by in-form HS Prannoy, seeded second in the upcoming event. He will will face Kalle Koljonen of Finland.

The other Indians in the fray in men's singles -- Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth -- will play Georges Julien Paul of Mauritius and Kenta Nishimoto of Japan respectively in the their first-round matches.

Prannoy has been the most consistent Indian singles player in the last 12 months, and is currently ranked ninth in the world. He won the Malaysia Masters in May before finishing second best in last week's Australian Open.

In women's doubles, India have fielded two pairs. While the duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand received a first-round bye, Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam will be up against Debora Jille and Cheryl Seinen of the Netherlands.

Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy will take on the Scottish pair of Adam Hall and Julie MacPherson in the opening round of