Lakshya, Satwik-Chirag lead India’s challenge at Kumamoto Masters

Kumamoto (Japan): Buoyed by a timely win in Germany, India’s ace shuttler Lakshya Sen will look to strengthen his bid for a place in the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals when he competes at the USD 500,000 Kumamoto Masters Japan Super 500 tournament, beginning here on Tuesday.

World No. 13 Lakshya, who ended a difficult phase by returning to the podium at the Hylo Open, will open his campaign against World No. 24 Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei.

The eighth-seeded Indian is currently 10th in the BWF World Tour rankings and needs to break into the top eight to qualify for the season-ending tournament in China. The 25-year-old from Almora has a 1-1 head-to-head record against Chi, and a strong showing this week and at next week’s Hong Kong Open Super 500 could be enough to secure his place.

The BWF World Tour Finals will be held from December 9 to 13.

India’s Kidambi Srikanth, who reached the US Open final in June this year, is also in the men’s singles draw and will face Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke.

In women’s singles, Malvika Bansod will take on fifth seed Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan.

World No. 6 and sixth seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will look to rediscover their winning touch after three successive first-round exits since their China Masters title. The Indian pair, who failed to defend their gold medal at the Asian Games, will face fifth seeds Wang Chang and Xie Haonan of China.

Satwik and Chirag, who also won the Singapore Open earlier this year, are 12th in the BWF World Tour rankings with 58,550 points. However, BWF rules allow a maximum of two pairs from a country to qualify for the World Tour Finals, provided they finish inside the top eight.

Currently, only Indonesia and Malaysia have two pairs each inside the top eight, with South Korea, England, China and Denmark also represented.

Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun will face Malaysia’s third seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.

In women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who won India’s maiden bronze medal in the event at the World Championships in August, will take on Japan’s Hinata Suzuki and Nao Yamakita.

The scratch mixed doubles pairing of Hariharan and Tanisha Crasto will face top seeds Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin of China, while Dhruv Rawat and K. Maneesha will meet fourth seeds Ye Hong Wei and Nicole Gonzales Chan of Chinese Taipei.