Hong Kong Open: Sindhu, Saina look to end season on high

New Delhi: Playing her fifth successive tournament in little over a month, Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu will have to battle exhaustion when she leads India’s challenge at the $400,000 Hong Kong Super Series, beginning in Kowloon, Hong Kong, on Tuesday.

Left with little time to prepare after literally living out of a suitcase in the last month, Sindhu found the going tough last week as she was a tad slow in her movement on court and her strokes also lacked the trademark sharpness.

The result was Sindhu suffered a listless loss against a young talent in China’s Gao Fangjie, who went on to reach the final at the China Open Super Series premier last week.

The Indian will have to recover quickly from that defeat and put her best foot forward against a qualifier in the opening round.

The 22-year-old from Hyderabad is expected to meet Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in the quarters if she crosses the first two rounds. Yamaguchi has been in sizzling form this season and clinched the China Open title last week after making her third successive final.

World no. 2 Kidambi Srikanth, who has clinched four titles and reached five finals this season, will be missing in action for the second successive week after failing to completely recover from a muscle strain.

Among other Indians, national champions Saina Nehwal and H.S. Prannoy will also look to end the season on a high.

While world no. 10 Prannoy faces experienced Hong Kong’s Hu Yun in the opening round, Saina, ranked 11th, opens her campaign against Denmark’s Mette Poulsen in the women’s singles.

After opting out of last week’s China Superseries Premier, men’s singles players B. Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap will return to action this week with the former taking on second seed Korean Son Wan Ho.

Kashyap faces Chinese Taipei’s Kan Chao Yu in the qualifier, while Sourabh Verma will fight it out with Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto.