Kamal Ghorui
PV Sindhu pulled out of the All England Championships on Monday, as the shuttler and her Indonesian coach Irwansyah Adi Pratama are stuck in Dubai due to the situation in West Asia.Confirming the development, Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary Sanjay Mishra told TOI that Sindhu will compete in next week’s Swiss Open Super-300 tournament. “Sindhu is not playing All England due to the situation in Dubai. She will compete in Swiss Open next week,” Mishra told TOI.
As of Monday afternoon, a limited number of flights resumed operations from Abu Dhabi, but the Dubai airport is still shut.The rest of the Indian squad is in Birmingham for the Super-1000 tournament beginning Tuesday.Meanwhile, Indian shuttlers will attempt to break the 25-year-old jinx at this prestigious championship. Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) were the only Indians to win the All England Championships.Saina Nehwal (2015), Lakshya Sen (2022) reached the finals, while the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand reached the last four stage in 2022 and 2023.Lakshya may find it difficult this year as he has drawn top seed Shi Yuqi of China in the first round. Fast-rising men’s singles shuttler Ayush Shetty will begin against Alwi Farhan of Indonesia and may face Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei next.The top Indian doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty face the Malaysian duo of Aaron Tai and Kang Khai Kang Xing in the first round. A victory here may pitch them against Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi of China in the second round.Treesa and Gayatri have done well in this tournament, but they have a tough first round against Sayaka Hirota and Ayako Sakuramoto. If they beat the Japanese, they may be up against seventh-seeded Chinese duo of Li Yi Jing and Luo Xu Min.
