Top seeds withdraw from India Open

As the Superseries circuit enters its last leg within the Olympic qualifying period, several top seeded players, including current and former All England and World Champions, have withdrawn on the eve of the India Open.

Women’s singles and mixed doubles were particularly hard hit as both draws lost both the top seeds and the reigning All England champions.  In the former, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu stands to benefit as her first round opponent was to be two-time World Champion Carolina Marin but also disappearing from the draw tonight was 7th-seeded Nozomi Okuhara, who might have been Sindhu’s quarter-final opponent.

In mixed doubles, a key beneficiary could turn out to be current world #9 Shin Baek Cheol and Chae Yoo Jung.  They were slated to begin in the top quarter, which today lost both top-seeded Ahmad/Natsir and New Zealand Open winners Chan Peng Soon / Goh Liu Ying.  All England winners Praveen Jordan / Debby Susanto (pictured) also backed out, leaving a much easier start to the tournament for two other Korean pairs.

Kashyap Parupalli’s knee injury has kept him sidelined and his spot in the main draw has been taken up by compatriot B. Sai Praneeth.  Women’s doubles had a few more casualties but the highest profile absence is that of two-time World Champions Tian Qing / Zhao Yunlei.

India’s top men’s doubles pair Manu Attri / B. Sumeeth Reddy can breathe a little easier now that they don’t have to face World Championship runners-up Liu/Qiu in the first round.  Also missing in action are both All England finalists, Ivanov/Sozonov of Russia and Japan’s Endo/Hayakawa.  Several pairs in the hunt for Olympic points will hope to capitalize on these withdrawals.

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