PV Sindhu, the defending champion, and HS Prannoy, who is on a roll, are preparing for the Singapore Open Super 750 competition in the hopes of standing out. After a lacklustre showing at the Thailand Open, Sindhu, who has struggled to regain her form after suffering an ankle injury last year, hopes to turn things around. Recent accomplishments for Sindhu include making it to this season’s semifinals of the Malaysia Masters and the Madrid Spain Masters. But her early withdrawal from the Thailand Open—which also happened to be her final BWF world tour victory—was hardly the best preparation for this contest.
Akane Yamaguchi, the No. 1 player in the world from Japan, will be playing Sindhu, adding to the difficulty of the match. Even though Sindhu leads Yamaguchi 14-9 in their head-to-head meetings, a lot has happened since their most recent meeting in Thailand. Sindhu must draw from her reserves and exhibit extraordinary tenacity to win this battle.
Prannoy, on the other hand, enters the competition with fresh enthusiasm after snapping a six-year title drought and winning his first BWF championship at the Malaysia Masters. Prannoy has recently been India’s most reliable singles player and hopes to continue his success. But in his first round, he will play the excellent third seed from Japan, Kodai Naraoka.
Lakshya Sen, who placed in the semifinals of the Thailand Open, will also be motivated to advance far in the competition. Chou Tien Chen, a reliable player from Chinese Taipei who is seeded fifth, stands in his way.
The 2021 global singles silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth will play Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen in his opening round, and the winner of the Orleans Masters, Priyanshu Rajawat, will play Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama.
Bronze medalist Saina Nehwal at the London Olympics will compete in the women’s singles against Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, a competitor she has had difficulty beating recently because of injuries and advancing age that have hampered her play.
Akira Koga and Taichi Saito of Japan will compete against Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, the world number 4 men’s doubles team that won the French Open Super 750 last year. The French team of Ronan Labar and Lucas Corvee will be faced up against MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will face Yeung Nga Ting andV Yeung Pui Lam of Hong Kong in the opening round of the women’s doubles competition.
A prominent event, the Singapore Open Super 750 sits just below the top-tier Super 1000 competitions on the BWF calendar.