Just days after their successful campaign at the 2024 French Open Super 750, the Indian shuttlers move to the prestigious All England Open Super 1000, aiming for the country’s first title win in 23 years at the tournament.
Widely known as the world’s oldest badminton tournament, which has been held annually since 1899, India’s last title win in the competition came way back in 2001 when Pullela Gopichand was crowned the men’s singles champion – 21 years after Prakash Padukone won the same event in 1980.
The closest an Indian has come to the title since 2001 has been the two semifinal finishes in the last two editions by Gopichand’s daughter Gayatri and her women’s doubles partner Treesa Jolly.
Treesa-Gayatri had punched above their weight in both 2022 and 2023 and will start their 2024 campaign against Indonesia’s Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti before likely facing the eighth seeds Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara from Japan in the second round.
India’s best bet for a title, however, will be the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
The world No 1 pair has been in a rich run of form, reaching four consecutive finals and winning the title at the French Open in Paris on Sunday. Rankireddy and Shetty have also added a lot of firsts in Indian badminton against their name in the last year and would be eager to become the first doubles pair from the country to stand on top of the podium at the All England Open.
The top seeds, however, will face a stiff challenge against three-time world champions Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan in the opening round itself. Rankireddy and Shetty trail 3-4 in head-to-head records against the Indonesian pair.
Two more doubles pairs – Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto, Swetaparna Panda and Rutaparna Panda, will aslo be in action for India.
On the other hand, double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, who marked her return to the World Tour in Paris last week, has also been handed a tough draw.
The former world champion will play Yvonne Li in the opening round before a possible encounter with world No 1 An Se Young in the second round. Sindhu has never won against the Korean in six encounters.
The 28-year-old Sindhu will have Aakarshi Kashyap for company in women’s singles.
In the men’s singles section, all eyes will be glued on Lakshya Sen, who edged his way into top 16 of the Race to Paris Rankings, following his semi-final finish at the French Open.
Sen will face off against a familiar foe in Ng Tze Yong of Malaysia in the opening round and has been drawn to face either Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia or sixth seed Kodai Naraoka next. All of them are ranked higher than the Indian.
However, it will be Kidambi Srikanth, who will face the biggest test of all in the opening round as he will go up against world No 1 Viktor Axelsen, who suffered a shock exit in the quarter-finals in Paris last week.
Besides, HS Prannoy and Priyanshu Rajawat will also be in action.
Indians at 2024 All England Open
Men's singles: Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, Priyanshu Rajawat
Women’s singles: PV Sindhu, Aakarshi Kashyap
Men’s doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty
Women's doubles: Tanisha Crasto-Ashwini Ponnappa, Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, Rutaparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda
The 2024 All England Open will be LIVE streamed on Jio Cinema and BWF YouTube channel.