Saina Nehwal will begin her campaign for an elusive medal against lower-ranked Olga Golovanova in the women’s singles, while male shuttler Ajay Jayaram will look to continue his good form in the second round of the World Championships on Wednesday.
London Olympics bronze medallist, Saina reached the quarterfinals in 2009 and 2011 and would look to better her record this time but the 23-year-old from Hyderabad will have to be on her guard as her first match could be tricky.
World number 12 P V Sindhu, who is making her debut at the World Championship, will open her campaign against Kaori Imabeppu of Japan. Sindhu, who won the Malaysia Grand Prix in May, had beaten the world number 32 Japanese in Japan Open last year.
Sindhu, who is coming after a break because of a knee injury, will look to get across her Japanese opponent to set up a likely clash with second seed Wang Yihan of China.
<span lang="EN">Corrales, Tsz Ka Chan win openers
GUANZHOU: Beatriz Corrales of Spain and Tsz Ka Chan of Hong Kong have rallied for hard-fought victories in the first round of the women’s singles at the World Badminton Championships. Corrales, who has risen to 40th in the world rankings from 86 last year, defeated Kristina Gavnholt of the Czech Republic 18-21, 21-15, 21-17 in 55 minutes on Tuesday to set up a second-round clash with Indonesian ninth seed Lindaweni Fanetri.
Tsz Ka Chan also came from a set behind to beat Line Kjaersfeldt of Denmark 18-21, 21-8, 21-9. There were no women’s singles seeds in action as they all had byes in the first round. Carolina Marin of Spain, Sarah Walker of England and Olga Golovanova of Russia were the others to make the second round.
<span lang="EN">Federation suspends Thai players for Canada Open brawl
GUANZHOU: The Badminton World Federation (BWF) banned Thai shuttler Bodin Issara for two years on Tuesday for his attack on former doubles partner Maneepong Jongjit during the final of the Canada Open last month.
Maneepong was himself suspended for three months by the BWF disciplinary committee which upheld the punishments that the Badminton Association of Thailand had announced for the pair last month. ‘Both sanctions are effective from the date of the incident,’ said BWF in a statement.