Denmark Open: Indian Shuttlers Up For Tough Challenge In PV Sindhu's Absence

Indian shuttlers, in the absence of an injured PV Sindhu, will be up for a tough grind as the badminton season begins with the Denmark Open Super 750 tournament in Odense on Tuesday. Sindhu is on her path to recovery after sustaining an ankle injury during her gold medal winning campaign at the Commonwealth Games. In her absence, all eyes will be on the likes of Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy and doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won a historic bronze medal at the World Championships in Tokyo in August.

But with no Indians being seeded in the singles, it will be a tough draw for the Indian shuttlers.

With a career-high world ranking of No. 8, Sen will face sixth seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, against whom, the Indian holds a 2-0 head-to-head edge, having beaten him at the German Open and Thomas Cup final this year.

But it remains to be seen whether the Indian is rusty coming back after a break. A win could pit him against fellow Indian HS Prannoy, who takes on Zhao Jun Peng in his opening round.

For that to happen, Prannoy has to overcome the Peng challenge for the first time. The Chinese world No. 19 has a 2-0 head-to-head advantage, having won against Prannoy in the World Championships in August and the other being at the Indonesia Open in June.

The other Indian heavyweight Srikanth on the other hand will be up against Angus Ng Ka Long with the duo having a 3-3 overall record.

The last encounter saw the Indian beating the Hong Kong lad but it has been more than a year at the HYLO Open and since then the Srikanth has been struggling to be consistent.

The road will only get tougher for Srikanth if manages to carve out a win as his next potential challenger could be seventh seed Loh