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HS Prannoy will be the centre of attention in the Indonesia Open, a BWF Super 1000 competition which starts on June 13, Tuesday. The eighth-ranked player in the world will face off against Japanese player Kenta Nishimoto, and if he prevails, Shi Yuqi of China is likely to be his opponent in the second round. PV Sindhu, two-time Olympic medallist, and Kidambi Srikanth, who won silver at the 2021 World Championships, will both aim for strong start to their campaigns.
In the first round, Sindhu and Srikanth will face Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia and Lu Guang Zu of China, respectively. Sindhu suffered first-round exits from the last two competitions, while Srikanth had a number of quarter-final finishes in Spain and Malaysia.
The men's doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won the Commonwealth Games and are ranked fifth in the world, will play Indonesia's Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in the first round. Satwik and Chirag, who won the Swiss Open championship this year, will need to summon all of their strength to defeat the Indonesian pair, who they have never defeated in 11 encounters.
Another Olympic medallist in Saina Nehwal is scheduled to square off against seventh seed Wang Zhi Yi who hails from China. The Indian shuttler has lost both of her encounters against Wang, in 2019 and 2022.
It is to be noted that six tiers make up the BWF World Tour. It includes World Tour Finals, four Super 1000s, six Super 750s, seven Super 500s, and eleven Super 300s tournaments in total.
