The renowned bronze medalist in the Olympic Saina Nehwal and the one who is former World Champion Intanon Ratchanok has been probably to clash in the finals of the Thailand Masters as the two who have been caught up in the opposite halves in the USD 1, 20,000 Grand Prix Gold contest to be held in the city of Bangkok from February 8 to 13.
The World No.2 Saina, who is going to unwrap her new season as the defensive champion at the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold, will also leave no stone unturned to confirm the Thailand Masters title & grab some precious points for 2016 Olympic qualification.
The highly seeded Indian has achieved a simplified draw as she will engage with Singapore’s Jiayuan Chen in her first match and is liable to meet sixth seed Busanan Ongbumrungphan of Thailand in the quarterfinals at Nimibutr Building in the city of Bangkok.
Even this aforementioned Olympic bronze medalist is about to appear before China’s No. 11 Sun Yu in the last four. However, the Indian had previously lost to the Chinese in 2013 China Open. In reality, she has crushed her five times.
Local star Ratchanok too appears to have a straight road as she is going to face fellow players like Nichaon Jindapol in the quarter-finals and world no.8 Sung Ji-Hyun of South Korea in the semi-finals. Sung will start her fight against India’s Saili Rane.
Saina has not been seen in her superior form as she is dressing her foot injury also had not played all of her matches for Awadhe Warriors at the newly finished Premiere Badminton League.
However, another Indian is there and that is Tanvi Lad. She will experience USA’s Rong Scheafer in her opening match. However, in men’s singles, Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap should take on Korea’s Kwang Hee Heo. Anand Pawar will take up the responsibilities of facing Thailand’s Tawan Huansuriya and young players like Sameer Verma and Harsheel Dani as well. In addition, it is to say that they will square up against Singapore’s Kean Yew Loh & Lino Munoz from Mexico correspondingly.
Subhankar Dey & Shreyansh Jaiswal will both be meeting a qualifier and top seed such as Lee Hyun II of Korea in that order. Of course, it would be their first round matches.
The New men’s doubles pair like K Nandagopal & Shlok Ramchandran is also going to meet Thai combo of Puaranvaranukroh Dechapol and Kendren Kittinupong. At that very time, M Anilkumar Raju and Venkat Gaurav Prasad will be about to face Indonesia’s Andrei Adistia and Agripinna Prima Rahmanto Putra.
In women’s doubles as well, Dhanya Nair and Mohita Sahdev will be ready in facing Indonesian pair of Keshya Nurvita Hanadia and Devi Tika Permatasari too.
