Indian shuttlers eye ranking points in ABC

Indian shuttlers, including Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu, will look to earn some valuable ranking points when they start their campaign in the Badminton Asia Championship, the last event before the Olympic qualification deadline, starting here tomorrow.
After recovering from a nagging ankle injury, Saina had registered semifinal finishes in the Swiss Open, India Open and Malaysia Open before skipping the Singapore Open, and the fifth seeded Indian will now open her campaign here against Fitriani Fitriani of Indonesia tomorrow.
World No. 10 Sindhu, however, made a lot of quarterfinal exits this year in Swiss Open, India Open, Malaysia Open and China Masters and she would be eager to break that jinx when she starts her campaign here against Maria Febe Kusumastuti of Indonesia in another women's singles match.

In men's singles, World No. 13 Kidambi Srikanth, who is set to play his first Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August, have been going through an inexplicable slump in form, making too many first round exits.
The 23-year-old from Guntur lost in the opening round at the India Open, Malaysia Open, Singapore Open and China Masters, and the eighth seeded Indian will look to end the dismal run when he clash with Korea's Lee Dong Keun in the opening round.
More actions are in store at the Wuhan Sports Center Gymnasium as 2010 Commonwealth Games champion pair Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will face Korean pair of Chang Ye Na and Lee So Hee.

World No. 20 men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will meet Japan's Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa, while Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar will square off against Hong Kong combo of Or Chin Chung and Tang Chun Man.

Another Indian Sri Krishna Priya Kudarvalli prevailed
23-21 21-19 over Mugdha Agrey in another all-Indian clash to reach the quarters and will face Indonesian sixth seed Hanna Ramadini next. Among others, third seed Spaniard Beatriz Corrales, also reached the quarters.
In mixed doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy defeated Rohan Kapoor and Sanjana Santosh 21-15 21-18, while Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy beat Ketan Chahal and Mohita Sahdev 21-6 21-15 to reach the quarters.

Among others, Denmark's top seed Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen, sixth seeds Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Jemie Lai of Malaysia, Singapore's third seed Yong Kai Terry Hee and Wei Han Tan, fifth seeds Mathias Christiansen and Sara Thygesen of Denmark and Russsian fourth seeds Evgenij Dremin and Evgenia Dimova also reached the quarters.
In men's doubles, World No. 22 Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who had played at the Rio Olympics, lost 15-21 21-17 17-21 to Malaysian combo of Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif and Khim Wah Lim.
Denmark's top seed Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen set up a quarterfinal clash with fifth seeded Indonesian-Malaysian combo of Hendra Setiawan and Boon Heong Tan after both the pairs won their respective matches.

In women's doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy defeated compatriots Dimpal Hazarika and Sanghamitra Saikia 21-7 21-10 and will meet second seeded Malaysian Mei Kuan Chow and Lee Meng Yean next. Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant also made it to the quarters after a hard-fought win over Juhi Dewangan and Aakarshi Kashyap 21-13 16-21 21-11 in another match.