Sindhu, Saina handed tricky draws in All England Badminton Championships

Bengaluru, February 13: Top Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal were handed tricky draws for the All England Badminton Championships scheduled to be held in Birmingham from March 6 to 10.

Olympic and World Championship silver medallist Sindhu, who had reached the semifinals last year, will open her campaign against South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun, while Indonesia Masters champion Saina takes on Scotland's Kristy Gilmour in the first round.

Both Sindhu and Saina are currently playing at the ongoing Senior National Championships in Guwahati and will head straight to Birmingham for the World Tour Super 1000 tournament.

MD - DRAW #AllEngland2019 pic.twitter.com/cbH8p90O3u

— IG: Badminton_Now (@BadmintonNow) February 12, 2019

Sindhu will have to be cautious against Hyun, who had defeated her at the Hong Kong Open last year. If she gets past Hyun, the Indian is likely to face third seed Chen Yufei in the quarterfinal.

Former world no. 1 Saina, who had reached the All England final in 2015, made a good start to the new season with a semifinal finish at the Malaysia Masters followed by a title win at Indonesia.

But the London Olympics bronze medallist is expected to face world no. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals. Saina had lost her last 11 encounters against Tai, who had an injury-marred end to the last season.

The Indian duo will also fancy their chances after three-time world champion Carolina Marin of Spain has been ruled out due to the knee injury suffered during the Indonesia Masters final.

#AllEngland2019 Championship: @Pvsindhu1, @NSaina handed tough draws, aim at breaking 18-year-old title jinxhttps://t.co/lOOH4Xva9I

— DNA (@dna) February 13, 2019

In men's singles, Kidambi Srikanth, who missed the Senior Nationals due to a minor issue with his ankle, will take on Frenchman Brice Leverdez in the opening round. He is likely to meet world no. 1 Kento Momota in the quarterfinals. The seventh seeded Indian had lost to Momota five times last season.

Sameer Verma, who reached the semifinals at World Tour Finals, will start his campaign against former world no. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.

Among others, B Sai Praneeth and H S prannoy will face each other in the opening round with the winner likely to take on Indonesia's Anthony Ginting.

Indian women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnapa and N Sikki Reddy will be meeting seventh-seeded Japanese duo of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto, while Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram will square up against Russia's Ekaterina Bolotova and Alina Davletova.

In men's doubles, National champion Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will face China's Ou Xuanyi and Ren Xiangyu in the first round.

The last time an Indian had won the All England Championship was way back in 2001 by current national coach Pullela Gopichand, while Prakash Padukone was the first from the country to win the coveted crown in 1980.

For India to end the 18-year title jinx, it would take a herculean task as the draw looks very tricky.

(With PTI inputs)