Badminton Asian Championship 2024: What the tournament holds for India
PV Sindhu won the World Championship title in 2019, while Pullela Gopichand won the All England title in 2001. But the last time an Indian won a singles title at the Badminton Asian Championships was in 1965.
Dinesh Khanna stands in supreme isolation as the only Indian singles player to have been the Asian champion. Also, he has one of only two Indian golds at the continental championships. The other winners from India have been Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, in last year's edition.
So, why is the Badminton Asia Championships such a difficult tournament to crack for Indian players? The simple answer is - it is almost the toughest competition in the world of badminton.
Except for Carolina Marin in the women's singles and Viktor Axelsen in the men's singles, all the top players in singles events are Asian. So, these championships are almost, if not actually, as tough as the World Championships.
However, while the World Championships take centerstage, this tournament often gets short shrift. So, it's possible that the Indians don't prepare as well for it as for the other big event.
Will India's title drought at the Badminton Asia Championships get alleviated this year?
It's unrealistic to expect an Indian singles win at the Badminton Asia Championships 2024. The biggest contender in the singles division in the country - PV Sindhu - is hopelessly out of form.
Despite getting the legendary Prakash Padukone on board as a coach, her results haven't improved. In her last outing, she lost to Thailand's mid-carder Supanida Katethong in the third round of the Spain Masters. This followed second-round exits at the Swiss Open and the All England Open.
At the Badminton Asia Championships, she will have relatively easy matches in the first two rounds. Her campaign would start with a match against Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia. She could next face Han Yue of China in the second round. This match might turn out to be a little tougher than expected as the Chinese players can raise their game in big events.
The third round could see her go up against one of the favorites - Akane Yamaguchi of Japan. This would be a big test for Sindhu as the two-time World Champion is a very tough player to defeat.
In the men's singles draw, Lakshya Sen will be the one to keep an eye on. But he has a very tough draw ahead of him. The shuttler from Uttarakhand will start the tournament with a match against the top seed - Shi Yu Qi of China.
If he gets past him, and Shi's inconsistent results over the years suggest he could, Lakshya might face Loh Kean Yew of Singapore and Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the next two rounds. Both will be tough matches.
HS Prannoy, a former bronze medalist at this event, will take on Lu Guang Zu in his opening encounter. If he wins, Prannoy might then run into Japan's fourth-ranked Kodai Naraoka in the quarterfinals. This is a difficult set of matches for the Indian shuttler.
Kidambi Srikanth has an equally tough draw compared to Lakshya Sen. He will start the tournament against the second seed - Anthony Sinisuka Ginting - a top favorite. Getting past him would be very tough, and if he does manage that, players such as Li Shi Feng of China and Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan might be in his way.
India's hopes in doubles events at the Badminton Asia Championships 2024
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have decided to give this tournament a miss. This means that India's hopes of a medal in the doubles events have taken a hit.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, and Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa are the two lead pairs for India in the doubles events. Both these women's doubles team will have to play out of their skins to win a medal.
The Jolly-Gopichand pair has had some setbacks recently. They lost in the very first round of the Spain Masters recently. Crasto-Ponnappa, on the other hand, reached the quarterfinals of the same event.
However, at the Asian Championships, both these pairs are not fancied to end up on the podium.
Jolly and Gopichand will face fourth-ranked Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in the first round. Crasto and Ponnappa will be up against Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi of Indonesia. Tougher tests will await them in the following rounds.