Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy have pulled out of the Australian Badminton Open beginning on Tuesday in Sydney.
Both Indians were the top seeds for the tournament but the draw was updated on Monday with their names missing. Along with Prannoy, P Kashyap, who was seeded sixth, has also pulled out. B Sai Praneeth (second) and Sameer Verma (fourth) are the only remaining Indians in the men’s singles draw.
The Australian Open was a Superseries event in the previous classification format with prize money of $750,000, below only Superseries Premier tournaments and prestigious competitions such as the world championships.
However, under the new tournament classification format introduced by the Badminton World Federation from the 2018 season, the Australian Open is a World Tour Super 300 event, with reduced prize money of $150,000.
Sai Praneeth could meet 2017 New Zealand Open champion Lee Cheuk Yiu, that is if the shuttler from Hong Kong first gets past young Lakshya Sen, who won a game against Lin Dan last week.
There are three seeded Indian pairs in the men’s doubles draw: Manu Attri/B Sumeeth Reddy (3rd), MR Arjun/Shlok Ramchandran (7th) and Francis Alwin/K Nandagopal (8th). Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy, who were seeded third in the mixed doubles draw, have also pulled out.
Corrections and clarifications: This story has been updated to reflect the pull-outs as soon as the draw was updated on Monday.
