Shuttler PV Sindhu will be banking on the easy draw to arrest the slump in her form at the Australian Open BWF Super-500 tournament in Sydney beginning Tuesday.
With An Se Young of South Korea, Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, Chen Yufei of China skipping the event to prepare for the World championships, Sindhu has a good chance.
Ratchanok Intanon or Gao Fang Jie, Beiwen Zhang and Pornpawee Chochuwong are the only hurdles Sindhu needs to overcome. Sindhu begins against Ashmita Chaliha on Wednesday. Saina Nehwal was the last Indian to defeat Sindhu at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Sindhu is likely to face Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia in the second round and fourth seed Beiwen Zhang of USA in the quarterfinals.
In the men's field, Lakshya Sen begins against Kiran George. HS Prannoy has a tough first round opponent in Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong. Yiu downed Prannoy in the second round of Korea Open and enjoys a 2-1 win-loss record.
If Prannoy manages to get past Yiu he may face Lakshya in the quarterfinals.
Kidambi Srikanth faces former world No.1 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the first round.
Orleans Masters champion Priyanshu Rajawat has a good chance of reaching the quarterfinals. Priyanshu was impressive against world No.2 Anthony Ginting and Kodai Naraoka of Japan in the last few weeks.
The women's duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand are drawn against Canadians Catherine Choi and Josephine Wu in the first round. The draw gets tougher from the second round. Ashwini Ponnappa and her new partner Tanisha Crasto have been promoted from the qualifiers.
Sumeeth Reddy-Ashwini Ponnappa and Rohan Kapoor-Sikki Reddy are in the mixed doubles main draw.
