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Saina to return to action in Korean Open Super Series

By Pti

New Delhi, Jan 24 (PTI) After recovering from a ligamentinjury, India''s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal will return to theinternational scene in her season-opening Korean Open SuperSeries in Seoul starting tomorrow.

The 20-year-old, who missed the Indian Grand Prix, SuperSeries Masters Final and the Malaysian Open because of aligament injury in her right leg, will take on Tzu Ying Tai ofChinese Taipei in the first round of the main draw starting onWednesday.

Saina will hope to hit the right note from the startafter missing action for more than a month. The world numberfour also has second seed Chinese Shixian Wang and fifth seedDane Tine Baun in the second half of the draw.

Going by her last year''s form during which she won fivemajor international titles, the girl from Hyderabad isexpected to meet Julian Schenk in the quarterfinals, beforetaking on Shixian in the semis.

However, it remains to be seen if she would be able toshrug off the initial jitters, and be in her elements in thefirst tournament after her Hong Open Super series triumph lastNovember.

In the men''s singles, P Kashyap will spearhead India''schallenge. Kashyap will face Thai Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk inthe first round.

The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist''s tryst withtough draws continues -- even if he gets past the Thai, hewill meet third seed Peter Gade in the next round.

Kashyap is in the second half of the draw, which alsofeatures Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, sixth seed Lin Dan and secondseed Taufik Hidayat, besides England''s Rajiv Ouseph andseventh seed Thai Boonsak Ponsana.

Among others, Commonwealth Games gold medallists JwalaGutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will take on Mizuki Fujii and ReikaKakiiwa in the first round of the women''s doubles.

Jwala and V Diju, however, will not have it easy againstJenny Wallwork and Nathan Robertson in the opening round ofthe mixed doubles category.

Story first published: Monday, January 24, 2011, 17:00 [IST]
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