Sindhu, Saina might clash in India Open quarterfinals

Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu is likely to clash with London Games bronze winner Saina Nehwal in the quarterfinals of the USD 325,000 India Super Series scheduled to be held from March 28 to April 2 at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here.
According to the draw, World No. 5 Sindhu will open her campaign against Singapore's Xiaoyu Liang and the third seeded Indian is likely to face Japan's Saena Kawakami in the second round.
Sixth seeded Saina, on the other hand, will take on Chinese Taipei's Chia Hsin Lee in the opening round and might meet Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong, an opponent she had beaten in the finals of the Malaysia Masters in January.

The two have met just once in an international competition - at the 2014 Syed Modi International - where Saina had won in straight games. Saina and Sindhu were on a collision course for a place in the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Open last year before the senior pro suffered a loss.
They had played against each other in PBL with Sindhu having an upper hand this year.
Among others in women's singles, Rituparna Das will square off against Chinese Taipei's Chiang Mei Hui and Tanvi Lad will have an uphill task against seventh seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan. Unheralded Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli will face second seeded Korean Sung Ji Hyun in her opening match.

In men's singles, K Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth will face the qualifiers in the first match, while Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold champion Sameer Verma will lock horns with fourth seeded Korean Son Wan Ho and Ajay Jayaram will have to get past third seed and Olympic bronze medallist Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
H S Prannoy will face Malaysia's Zulfadli Zulkiffli in the first round.
India's top men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will face Japan's Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi, while seventh seeds Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy will face Indonesian combo of Hafiz Faizal and Shela Devi Aulia.