The Indian shuttlers were handed a tough draw at the 2025 Badminton Asia Championships, which is scheduled to be held in Ningbo, China next month.
Lakshya Sen, the country’s top ranked men’s singles player, will face off against Lee Chiao-Hao of Chinese Taipei in the first round.
Lee had reached the final of the 2025 All England Super 1000 just earlier this month.
HS Prannoy, meanwhile, will have to go up against China’s Lu Guang Zu in front of his home crowd, whereas Priyanshu Rajawat will have to overcome Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangchaoren.
In women’s singles, Anupama Upadhayay will have to face-off against eighth seed Ratchanok Intanon, while Aakarshi Kashyap will go up against second seed Han Yue of China.
Meanwhile, PV Sindhu has an easier first round battle against world No 34 Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo of Indonesia.
Malvika Bansod, the fourth Indian in women’s singles, will have to battle China’s Fang Jie Gao.
In the absence of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who have withdrawn from the tournament, Hariharan Amsakarunan-Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi and Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy-Sai Pratheek will lead Indian challenge in men’s doubles.
Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and Priya Konjengbam-Shruti Mishra will be in action in women’s doubles.
Elsewhere in mixed doubles, India will have four pairs competing with Rohan Kapoor-Ruthvika Gadde, Sathish Karunakaran-Aadya Variyath, Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto, Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh all in action.
The 2025 Badminton Asia Championships will be held from 8 April, 2025 to 13 April, 2025.
