Sindhu, Srikanth to restart quest for first title of season at Korea Open

Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will look to maintain consistency as they eye a maiden title of the season when they begin their campaign at the Korea Open Super 500 tournament here on TuesdayA title has eluded Sindhu this year with more than half the season already over She has not been able to string together a series of wins in a week after returning from a fivemonth long injury layoff following a stress fracture on her ankleThe twotime Olympic medallist had reached the final of Madrid Spain Masters her best finish this season She showed sparks when she reached the semifinals of Canada Open but was defeated by Japanrsquos Akane Yamaguchi She made a quarterfinal exit in the next event after going down to Chinas Gao Fang Jie in the US OpenAlso Read Has left significant emotional impact PV Sindhu pens emotional note after US Open exitSindhu also made some first and second round exits this seasonThe world No 12 Indian will have to quickly recover from when she opens her campaign here against Chinese Taipeis Pai Yu Po A favourable result is likely to pit her against Chinas Olympic champion Chen Yu FeiWith new coach Muhammad Hafiz Hashim a former All England champion also travelling with her this week Sindhu will hope she finds her footing quickly in the Olympic qualification period which ends in April next yearSrikanth the 2021 World Championships silver medallist has also not been able to win a title albeit reaching quarterfinals at Spain Masters Malaysia Masters and Indonesia OpenThe former world number one will hope to put up a good show this week when he opens against Japans Kento Momota after having trained with his new coach Wiempie Mahardi of IndonesiaWhile titles eluded Sindhu and Srikanth Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy managed to claim Super 500 crowns at Canada and Malaysia this year and the duo would be hoping to hold on to their formSen coming into the event after a semifinal finish at US Open will face former world number 2 Anders Antonsen of Denmark in his opening round while fifth seed Prannoy will take on fellow Indian Sameer VermaAll eyes will also be on Indonesia Open champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty when they take the court against Thailands Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren in mens doublesThe third seeded Indian pair who also claimed the Swiss Open Super 300 title has been simply sensational this season and will be one of the favourites to clinch another titleThe mens singles draw will also have Orleans Masters champion Priyanshu Rajawat national champion Mithun Manjunath and 2022 Odisha Open winner Kiran GeorgeWhile Rajawat will face a qualifier Mithun is pitted against Malaysias Ng Tze Yong and Kiran will square off against Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese TaipeiIn womens singles Aakarshi Kashyap and Malvika Bansod will face uphill task against Chinas Zhang Yi Man and Olympic silver medallist Tai Tzu Ying respectivelyAmong others mens doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala and MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila are also in frayCommonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand too will look for a good outing when they open their campaign against Bulgarian sisters Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani StoevaTanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa and Panda sisters Rutaparna and Swetaparna too will hope to produce some good results this weekN Sikki Reddy and Ashwini will also pair up with their respective partners Rohan Kapoor and B Sumeeth Reddy in mixed doubles competitionWith PTI inputs