Kumamoto (Japan), November 13 (Language) India’s number one player HS Prannoy is making a comeback after a back injury while Lakshya Sen will be trying to regain his rhythm in the Japan Masters Super 500 tournament starting on Tuesday.
Prannoy had withdrawn from Denmark and French Open due to back injury. This injury had troubled Prannoy, who had won a historic bronze medal during the Asian Games in Hangzhou last month.
Prannoy, returning after four weeks, will face unseeded Lee Chiuk Yui of Hong Kong in the first round.
“I am not thinking too far ahead,” Prannoy told PTI. The injury is better now and I have started exercising. We have to manage the workload which is the biggest challenge.
If Prannoy overcomes the challenge in the first two rounds, he may face Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the quarter-finals.
The tournament will give Sen and Kidambi Srikanth an opportunity to accumulate ranking points as the Olympic qualification period has started from May 1 and will continue till April 28 next year.
The world’s top 16 players will qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Prannoy, ranked eighth in the world rankings, is in the Olympic qualification bracket while Sen is placed 17th and Srikanth is placed 23rd.
Sen, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion, has been in poor form since winning the Canada Open in July. He has suffered first round exits in the last four tournaments.
He will face third seed Kodai Naraoka in the first round. Sen had defeated him at the Indonesia Masters in January.
Srikanth will play the qualifiers in the first round. Priyanshu Rajawat will face Lin Chun Yi of Chinese Taipei.
PV Sindhu is the only Indian in the women’s category to have won an Olympic medal twice. She will play Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt in the first round against whom she has a score of 6. There is a record of 1.
India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have got the top seeding in men’s doubles. They will face Chinese Taipei’s Ilu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han.
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