Australian Open 2024 Preview: HS Prannoy To Spearhead Indian Challenge

HS Prannoy will look to regain his lost form when he spearheads India's challenge at the Australian Open badminton tournament starting in Sydney on Tuesday. (More Badminton News)

Prannoy, seeded fifth, didn't have best of results in the last two tournaments. He was stunned by compatriot Meiraba Luwang 🔜Maisn🌌am in the men's singles opening round of Thailand Open last month.

If that was not enough, world No. 10 Prannoy lost to w🍌orld No. 1ꦍ1 Kenta Nishimoto 13-21 21-14 15-21 in a 45-minute Round of 16 match in Singapore Open.

And thꩵe Indian will be desperate to turn things around in the BWF Super 500 event as he opens his campaign against Ygor Coelho of Brazi♐l.

Sameer Verma will play Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia in the opening round, while Ravi faces a tough opponent in eight seed Loh Kean Yew of Singꦺapore.

Other༒ Indians to feature in the men's singles are Mithun Manjunath, who will take on Indonesia's Alwi Farhan, Kiran Geoge who is up against Canada's Xiaodong Sheng, S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian who is pitted against top seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.

In women's singles, eighth seed Aakarshi Kashyap will lead the Indian charge. She will play Ukraine's Polin꧅a Buhrova in th🐻e opening round.

Ashmita Chaliha will play Peru's Ines Lucia Castillo, Anupama Upadhyaya will lock horns with Malaysia's Wong Ling Ching, Samiya Imad Fa🎃rooqui has a tough opponent in top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, while Keyu𒉰ra Mopati and Malvika Bansod will feature in an all-Indian contest.

No Indian featureಌs in the men's doubles, while Panda sisters, Rutuparna and Swetaﷺparna, seeded seventh, and the pair of Harshita Rout and Sruti Swain will lead India's charge in the women's doubles.

There are three Indian pairs in the mixed dou💎bles.

Eighth seed B Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy will play Malaysian duo of Wong Tien Ci and Lim Chiew Sien in their opener, while Tarun Kona and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli will be up again🉐st another Malaysian combination of Hoo Pang Ron a✤nd Cheng Su Yin.

The third Indian mixed doubles pair of💫 Ayush Raj Gupta and Sruti Swai🌱n will play against Australian duo of Jordan Yang and Sydney Tjonadi in the opener.