Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen and PV Sindhu have been handed decent draws in their comeback event at the Arctic Open, a BWF World Tour Super 500 event, starting on October 8.
Lakshya, playing for the first time since his Paris Olympics campaign, will face Danish shuttler Rasmus Gemke in the first round of the men’s singles category. The two players met each other twice, with Gemke emerging triumphant in their last meeting at the India Open in 2023.
However, given Lakshya’s current form and newly minted fitness gained at the Red Bull Arena in Austria over a month, the youngster is expected to advance to the next round and face seventh-seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
If Lakshya overcomes Tien Chen’s tricky game, he is likely to run into World No. 3 Anders Antonsen in the quarterfinal.
In the men’s singles qualification round, former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth will face off against Kiran George, while Sathish Karunakaran will take on Arnaud Merkle of France.
On the other hand, double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, who will be back to competition for the first time since her round of 16 exit from the Paris Olympics in August, will face Michelle Li of Canada in the first round. With Sindhu expected to advance, she might face young Japanese sensation Tomako Miyazaki in the next round.
The Arctic Open will also be Sindhu’s first event under her new coaching team of Anup Sridhar and Korean legend Lee Syun Il.
Meanwhile, after a good run at the China Open Super 1000, Malvika Bansod has been handed a reasonable draw as she faces World No. 24 Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei. If she overcomes the first-round challenge, Malvika will have her task cut out against either top-seed Wang Zhi Yi of China or Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the second round.
Aakarshi Kashyap will be up against Yvonne Li of Germany in the first round, while youngster Unnati Hooda will play Heli Neiman of Israel in the qualifiers.
India won’t have any representation in the men’s doubles while Rituparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda will feature in the women’s doubles category.
In the mixed doubles, Sathish will pair up with Aadya Variyath.
HS Prannoy and the men’s doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are the only set of Indian shuttlers yet to return to the BWF World Tour circuit since the Paris Olympics.