File photo of PV Sindhu© AFP
Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and ace Kidambi Srikanth will continue their European experience at the Madrid Spain Masters tournament, which starts on Tuesday. Last year’s finalist Sindhu, who was seeded second here, will face Wen Yu Zhang of Canada in the round of 32, while seventh seed Srikanth will play a qualifying match. Sindhu will be hoping to go the distance after suffering a heartbreaking loss to Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in the previous edition of the tournament. Srikanth, whose participation in the recently concluded Swiss Open Super 300 tournament came to an end after a semi-final defeat to Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei, will be hoping to make an impact after withdrawing from the race for the Olympics in Paris.
Srikanth, who is playing his ninth tournament this season and recently made his first final-four appearance in 16 months at the Swiss Open, will be joined by Kiran George and Sathish Karunakaran at the tournament.
Among other Indians in the fray, Ashmita Chaliha will play the opener against fourth seed and former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, while Malvika Bansod will clash with Iris Wang of the United States for a place in the last 16.
Lakshya Sen, semi-finalist of this year’s All England Championships, has withdrawn from the tournament. The fifth seed was scheduled to face world number 39 Takuma Obayashi of Japan but decided not to participate in the event.
Sen reached the quarterfinals of the French Open, but was eliminated in the second round of the Swiss Open.
Three Indian pairs will feature in the women’s doubles main draw, with fifth seeds Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand taking the lead. The duo is coming off a disappointing quarter-final defeat to Australia’s Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu at the Swiss Open.
Third seed Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa will also try their luck here after a second-round defeat in Basel, while Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam are the third Indian women’s pair here.
In the men’s doubles, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Sai Pratheek open against fourth-seeded Canadians Dong Adam and Yakura Nyl, while eighth-seeded MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will face Mexican duo Job Castillo and Luis Armando Montoya Navarro.
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