Sindhu, Lakshya, Satwik-Chirag withdraw from BWF Japan Open
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Tuesday confirmed that defending champion Axelsen, fresh from winning his second Olympic Games gold medal, will be among the star attractions in the tournament amid massive pull outs.
PV Sindhu (Photo: PTI)
KUALA LAMPUR: India's top shuttlers including PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy and men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have withdrawn from the upcoming BWF Japan Open, scheduled to commence on August 24.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Tuesday confirmed that defending champion Axelsen, fresh from winning his second Olympic Games gold medal, will be among the star attractions in the tournament amid massive pull outs. The tournament will be the first major event after the conclusion of the Paris Olympics on Sunday.
Axelsen is one of three defending champions who have entered the tournament – the others are women’s doubles duo Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong and mixed doubles pair Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino.
The other two defending champions: An Se Young and Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin – who also won the Olympic gold recently – will skip the Japan Open.
Lakshsya came agonisingly close to winning the bronze medal for India in the Paris Olympics but he went down fighting against Axelsen to miss out the podium finish in the debut quadrennial event.
Apart from the Indian shuttlers, the other prominent exits include Olympic champions Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, Chen Yu Fei, and Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti.
In men’s doubles, world champions Seo Seung Jae/Kang Min Hyuk will be looking for their first Japan Open title, while in women’s doubles, local hopefuls Chiharu Shida/Nami Matsuyama and Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara will attempt to break the run of Korean success from 2019.
Olympic bronze medallists Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino will look to defend their title, with the field likely to see world champions Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yu Jung, Olympic silver medallists Kim Won Ho/Jeong Na Eun and Indonesia Open winners Jiang Zheng Bang/Wei Ya Xin.
