BWF draw puts Saina, Sindhu on collision course

New Delhi, August 10

Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu are on a collision course at the World Championships, which begins next week in Basel, Switzerland. 

The two are in the same half of the draw after badminton’s world governing body (BWF) re-conducted the women’s singles draw. Saina and Sindhu could face off in the semifinals if they get through the initial rounds of the tournament.

Sindhu, who is seeded fifth, received a bye in the first round and will open her campaign against either Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po or Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri. Saina too has a bye in the first round. In the second round, she will take on the winner of the match between Switzerland’s Sabrina Jaquet and the Netherland’s Soraya De Visch Eijbergen. If she wins her first match, Sindhu is likely to meet Beiwen Zhang of USA in the third round while Saina could square off against Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark. The Indian players’ likely opponents thereafter would be China’s Chen Yu Fei and Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying, respectively. BWF did not explain why the re-draw was done. — PTI