By IANS,
New Delhi : National champion and Indian Open Grand Prix runners-up Chetan Anand will open his campaign against Endo Hiroyuki of Japan in the $1,25,000 Badminton Asia Championships starting Wednesday at Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
The other Indians in the fray are Anup Sridhar, Ananad Pawar and P. Kashyap in the men’s singles, while national champion Saina Nehwal, Trupti Mugunde and Aditi Mutatkar will spearhead India’s challenge in the women’s singles category.
Both Sridhar and Pawar will have tough first round matches as they faces seventh seed Sung Hwan Park of South Korea and 10th seed Indonesian Simon Santoso respectively. Kashyap will meet Yi Lu of China.
In the women’s section, Newhal, seeded eighth, will be up against Julia Pei Xian Wong of Singapore in the first round, while Mutatkar and Murgunde will play Hong Kong’s Pui Yin Yip and Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand respectively.
Meanwhile, top men’s doubles duo of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas will square up against fourth seed Indonesian Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Luluk Hadiyanto, while compatriot Akshay Devalkar and V. Diju will meet Ehad Noubani and Mohd Naser Mansour Nayef of Jordan.
India’s ace women’s doubles combination of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian got a bye in the first round, and will face top seed Wei Yang and Jiewin Zhang of China next.
India’s challenge in the mixed doubles category will be lead by Diju and Gutta, who will take on seventh seed Sang Hoon Han and Yu Mi Hwang of South Korea in the opening round.