London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal will participate in next month’s US Open for the first time in her career. The 27-year-old, who has won 23 Individual titles across the globe, will look to annexe her first US Open title when she spearheads the Indian challenge at the Grand Prix Gold tournament to be held from July 19th to 23rd.

Badminton Association of India, Monday, announced the squad for three upcoming international tournaments, including the US Open, after a selection committee meeting that was held in Bangalore on Saturday. While Nehwal was named in women’s singles, the men’s singles action will see a strong line-up with the trio of Sameer Verma, HS Prannoy and P Kashyap representing India in California.

The mixed doubles category will see the newly formed Ashwini Ponappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy in action. Both the players had dished out jaw-dropping performance when they were paired for the first time in the Sudirman Cup last month. The selection committee also announced the names of the players who will participate in Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold (June 27-July 2), Canada Open Grand Prix (July 11-16) and Junior Asian Badminton Championship (July 22-July 30).

World No.33 Sourabh Verma will lead the Indian charge in the men’s singles category in Taipei, while Harsheel Dani and Siril Verma will also look to prove their mettle and make the most out of the opportunity. In women’s singles, Sri Krishna Priya and Uttejitha Rao will represent India. In Canada Open, India’s hopes will be pinned on the experienced duo of World No. 29 Prannoy and Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap. Both these players have been on and off the court in the past season due to injury and will be eager to get back to winning ways.

Squad:

Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold

Men’s Singles: Sourabh Verma, Harsheel Dani, Siril Verma, Women’s Singles: Sri Krishna Priya, Uttejitha Rao

Canadian Open Grand Prix

Men’s Singles: Sameer Verma, H.S Prannoy, P. Kashyap, Women’s Singles: Rituparna Das, Ruthvika Shivani, Sri Krishna Priya, Sai Uttejitha Rao, Men’s Doubles: Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy, Women’s Doubles: Poorvisha Ram/J Meghana, Kuhoo Garg/Ningshi B Hazarika
Mixed Doubles: Sikki Reddy/Pranaav Jerry Chopra

US Open Grand Prix Gold

Men’s Singles: Sameer Verma, HS Prannoy, P Kashyap, Women’s Singles: Rituparna Das, Saina Nehwal, Ruthvika Shivani, Men’s Doubles: Manu Attri/Summeth Reddy, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty, Women’s Doubles: Poorvisha Ram/J Meghana, Sikki Reddy/Ashwini Ponnappa, Mixed Doubles: Sikki Reddy/Pranaav Jerry Chopra, Ashiwini Ponnappa/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy

Badminton Asian Junior Championships (July 22–30)

Boy’s Singles – Jaswanth D, Lakshya Sen, Karthikey Gulshan Kumar, Arintap Das, Reserves – Swarnaraj Bora, AryamanTandon,)

Girl’s Singles – Aakarshi Kashyap, Prashi Joshi, Ashmita Chalia, Ira Sharma (Reserves – Kanika Kanwal), Boy’s Doubles – Dhruv Kapila/Krishna Prasad, Swarnaraj Bora/Sai Pawan Karri, Krishna Podili/Vishnuvardhan Gaur

Girl’s Doubles – Rituparna Panda /U K Mithula, Ashwini Bhat/Apeksha, Anugraha/Reza Farhath, Mixed Doubles –Tapaswini S Roy/Sanjay Srivastav, Dhruv Kapila/U K Mithula, G. Krishna Prasad/ Partner (decided by coach)

Coaches: Sanjay Mishra, Arvind Bhatt, Anshuman Hazarika, Trupti Murgunde