All England Open draw: Lakshya Sen handed early Shi Yu Qi challenge yet again, PV Sindhu faces a familiar rival in first round

Elsewhere in women’s singles. double-Olympic medallist PV Sindhu faces a familiar rival in the round of 32 in Thailand’s Supanida Katethong. The Indian star has struggled in the past to deal with the high tempo badminton of left-handed Katethong, but they haven’t faced each other since March 2024. In the nine previous meetings, Sindhu has the edge at 5-4 but Indian fans will remember world No 16 Supanida beating her at India Open back-to-back in 2022 and 2023. But Supanida hasn’t had the best of starts to the year, losing in the first round at Malaysia Open and India Open, and also lost in the quarterfinals at Indonesia Masters against Devika Sihag, who can perhaps pass a tip or two to her senior colleague. Should Sindhu prevail, it doesn’t get any easier as she is slated to face world No 2 Wang Zhi Yi in the second round.

Men’s doubles is perhaps India’s best bet at this year’s All England and the fourth seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty start with a winnable fixture against world No 34 Kang Khai Zing and Aaron Tai of Malaysia. Should they win that, they’d get a chance to avenge their semifinals defeat at the World Championships in Paris last year against China’s Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yu. The Chinese duo, who finished with the silver medal, outserved the Indians with plenty of flicks and will offer a stern second-round challenge.

Ayush Shetty is the second Indian player in the men’s singles draw and he will have to overcome Indonesia’s next big hope Alwi Farhan in a rematch of the 2023 BWF World Junior Championships semifinal. Ayush, who won bronze that edition, lost to the eventual champion Farhan in straight games. In women’s singles, Malvika Bansod also has a challenging first-round opponent in Tokyo Olympics champion Chen Yufei, while Unnati Hooda is drawn to face eighth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong.

India’s most recent consistent performers at the All England Open have been the women’s doubles pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand. They start off against a scratch pair in Sayaka Hirota and Ayako Sakuramoto. The former is the 2020 All England champion with her previous partner Yuki Fukushima while the latter has been in the top 10 before with a different partner. In mixed doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila take on Hoo Pang Ron and Cheng Su Yin of Malaysia while Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde face fifth-seeded French duo Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue.