Sai Praneeth to spearhead India in Australian Open Badminton Tour

New Delhi, May 9: Straight ahead of his semifinals appearance in New Zealand, Sai Praneeth will lead the Indian challenge at the Australian Open HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300, starting in Sydney from tomorrow. This is the first that the athlete will represent India in the absence of top guns of India.

Manu-Sumeeth have been seeded third and will open their campaign against Australian pair of Lukas Defolky and Michael Fariman. The other Indian men’s doubles pair of Arjun M.R. and Ramchandran Shlok will meet Australians Tam Raymond and Eric Vuong.

Another Indian men’s doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Shivam Sharma will meet Malaysians Tang Jie Chen and Goh Soon Huat while eighth seeds Francis Alwin and K. Nandagopal will face Tae In Jung and Hwi Tae Kim.

In the men’s singles, world No.18 Praneeth has been handed a top seeding and he will meet Israel’s Misha Zilberman in the opening round.

In the women’s singles, Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka will meet Japanese Ayumi Mine and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli will take on Indonesia’s Yulia Yosephin Susanto. Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka will meet Georgina Bland of England.

In the women’s doubles, J. Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram will face Maggie Chan and Jodee Vega of Australia.