PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal likely to face-off at BWF World Championships

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India’s star shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal are likely to play against each other at BWF World Championships in Basel, Switzerland. Sindhu and Nehwal have been placed in the same half after the world governing body re-conducted the women’s singles draw.

The eighth-seed Saina and the fifth-seeded Sindhu have both been placed in the bottom half and have a chance of facing each other in the semi-finals. Their path, however, is not going to be easy. Sindhu, who is seeded fifth, is coming into the prestigious event with a runner-up finish at the Indonesia Open last month and has been working on her fitness and defence in her pursuit to outlast her opponents. She received a bye in the first round and will open her campaign against either Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po or Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri.

If she wins her first match, Sindhu is likely to meet Beiwen Zhang of USA in the third round and is expected to face Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in the quarterfinals. If everything falls into place, then Sindhu may collide with compatriot Saina Nehwal in the semi-finals, provided the former world number 1 too crosses the initial rounds.

Eighth-seeded Saina, who boasts of a silver and bronze medal in the World Championships, will take on the winner of the match between Switzerland’s Sabrina Jaquet and Netherland’s Soraya De Visch Eijbergen in the second round after getting a bye. She is likely to face Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark next. Saina’s likely opponents in the quarterfinals will be China’s Chen Yu Fei, who had clinched the All England Championship earlier in the year.

Teams

The world’s best badminton players from around 50 nations are set to participate in the Badminton World Championships 2019 to be held in St. Jakobshalle Basel.

Schedule

The seven-day tournament will hold men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles events. A total of 64 matches will be played on the opening day of the tournament, followed by 56 on the second and third day. There will be a host of preliminary rounds on the first three days, followed by semis and finals on August 24 and August 25 respectively.

Players

Badminton fans will look out for Badminton Asia’s highest-ranked players, Kento Momota and Tai-Tzu-Ying, hailing from Japan and Anders Antonsen, Badminton Europe’s highest-ranked player, hailing from Europe in the men’s and women’s singles category. It will also witness some big names in the Indian roster including the likes of PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, and others.