World champion PV Sindhu and Commonwealth Games gold medalist Saina Nehwal would like to begin this year with a victory in the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament starting on Tuesday. World number six Sindhu has not won any Super Series title for the last two years. She did not win any trophy except for the World Championship in Basel, Switzerland last year. Saina also won just one trophy in 2019. There is less than seven months left in the Olympics and Sindhu would like to start strong by improving her flaws.
Rio Olympics silver medalist Sindhu will begin her campaign against Yevgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia. She may have to play world number one Chinese Taipei's Tai Xu Ying in the quarter-finals. Saina, who won the Indonesia Masters title last year, will play in the first round qualifiers.
Kidambi Srikanth, who pulled out of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) to be in best shape in the Olympic year, will start this year with a clash against second seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei. B Sai Praneeth, who ended as the best-placed Indian men's singles player in the BWF ranking, will open against Denmark's Rasmus Gemke, while Sameer Verma will square off against Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen in the first round. Former world number six Parupalli Kashyap will face top seed and world number one Kento Momota of Japan in the first round, while HS Prannoy, who was down with health issues for most part of last season, will compete against Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who became the first Indian men's pair to claim a Super 500 title at Thailand Open and also reached the finals of the French Open Super 750 event, will open against local shuttlers Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi.
