UPBEAT: Badminton players Saina Nehwal and Ashwini Ponnappa at a press conference in New Delhi. File photo / PTI
With just two tournaments to go before the Olympic qualification, contenders would look to rack up enough ranking points when they go all-out to earn a Games berth during the Asian badminton Championship beginning at Qingdao in China on Tuesday.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal is already assured of a berth but five of her compatriots are still in the running for a berth in the London Olympics and would look for a productive run in this tournament as well as the subsequent India Open, to be held from April 24 to April 29, before the May 3 deadline.
Saina, the world number five Indian is on a mission to earn some psychological mileage by defeating the top Chinese shuttlers and would start her campaign against Japan’s Kaori Imabeppu.
The 22-year-old has a reasonable draw and is likely to meet second seed Chinese Xin Wang in the quarterfinals. This would be an important tournament for the Indian ace as she would look to test her speed after her recent 5-kilo weight loss.
In the men’s singles, it is a two-way battle between world number 27 Ajay Jayaram and P Kashyap, ranked 31st and the duo would start their campaign against Chinese Taipei’s Jen Hao Hsu and second seed Chen Long of China, respectively.
Top Indian doubles player Jwala Gutta is in running for an Olympic berth in two categories – women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
The 28-year-old from Hyderabad will pair up with Ashwini Ponnappa in women’s doubles as the World number 20 combo opens their campaign against Vita Marissa and Nadya Melati of Indonesia.
“We have been practising with Arif Sir and it has been a good session. We worked hard and we would look to be just calm mentally on court,” Ashwini said.
Jwala will also combine with her mixed doubles partner V Diju to take on Indonesian pair of Riky Widianto and Puspita Richi Dili in their tournament-opener.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / Sports> Other Sports / PTI / New Delhi, August 16th, 2012