PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth Restart Quest For 1st Title Of Season In Pre-Olympic Year

PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will look for consistency in their quest for the season's maiden title when they begin their campaign at the Korea Open, which lost a bit of sheen following the withdrawal of some key players, including Lakshya Sen. A title has eluded Sindhu this year with more than half the season already over. She has not been able to string together a series of wins in a week after returning from a five-month long injury lay-off following a stress fracture on her ankle. The two-time Olympic medallist had reached the final of the Madrid Spain Masters, her best finish this season. She showed sparks when she reached the semifinals of Canada Open but made a quarterfinal exit in the next event after going down to China's Gao Fang Jie in the US Open.

The world No. 12 Indian will have to quickly recover from the loss when she opens her campaign in the Super 500 tournament against Chinese Taipei's Pai Yu Po. A favourable result is likely to pit her against China's Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei.

With new coach Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, a former All England champion, also travelling with her this week, Sindhu will hope she finds her footing quickly in the Olympic qualification period which ends in April next year.

Srikanth, the 2021 World Championships silver medallist, too has blown hot and cold, reaching the quarterfinals at Spain Masters, Malaysia Masters and Indonesia Open.

The former world number one will hope to put up a good show this week when he opens against Japan's Kento Momota after having trained with his new coach Wiempie Mahardi of Indonesia.

While titles eluded Sindhu and Srikanth, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy managed to claim Super 500 crowns at Canada and Malaysia this year.

But this week, Sen will be