Sindhu, Sen to lead India in Canada Open

India's star shuttlers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will spearhead India's challenge at the Canada Open 2023 badminton tournament starting Tuesday in Calgary, as per Olympics.com.

After missing the Taipei Open 2023, Sindhu will start afresh in the tournament.

The 12th-ranked Sindhu has failed to make a mark in the past three BWF World Tour events as she did not cross the second rounds. The former world champion was knocked out in the round of 16 of the Indonesia Open after exiting the Singapore Open and the Thailand Open in the first round.

In this season, Sindhu reached the final only once at the Madrid Masters 2023. Sindhu also made the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters. The 27-year-old will open her women's singles campaign against Canada's world No. 61 Talia Ng.

Apart from Sindhu, Tasnim Mir and Gadde Ruthvika Shivani are India's others who will participate in the women's singles main draw. Tasnim start her campaign against Thuy Linh Nguyen of Vietnam while Ruthvika Shivani will face Thailand's Supanida Katethong in her opening game.

In the men's singles event, world No. 19 Lakshya Sen will be India's only badminton player in the main draw. Lakshya Sen will play Thailand's world No. 3 Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the round of 32.

Parupalli Kashyap, the 2014 Commonwealth Games champion, will face German Kai Schaefer in the opening round of qualifying. In the qualifications, S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian and B Sai Praneeth will also start.

HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth have skipped the Canada event. India's top doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who won the Indonesia Open last month, have also given the tournament a miss.

Meanwhile, in the men's doubles, the pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala will be India's only challenge. The duo will play the French pair of Julien Maio and William Villeger in the opener.

In the women's doubles, the Indian pair Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa will take on the Australian duo of Kaitlyn Ea and Gronya Somerville. The pair of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda will also start in the main draw.

B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa will play the Japanese duo of Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo in the first round of mixed doubles. Sai Pratheek K and Tanisha Crasto will start in the qualifiers.

The Canada Open 2023 is the fourth Super 500 tournament of the 2023 BWF World Tour calendar after the Indonesia Masters, Malaysia Masters and the Thailand Open.