Satwik-Chirag lead India’s charge

Birmingham, March 11

Newly-crowned French Open champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will look to end India’s 23-year-old title drought at the All England Championships as they lead the country’s charge in the tournament starting here tomorrow.

Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) are the only Indians to claim the title with Saina Nehwal (2015) and Lakshya Sen (2022) finished runner-up.

It is one of the four Super 1000 events on the international calendar. Satwik and Chirag won a Super 1000 title in Indonesia last year and given their stellar run this season, expectations would be high. The Asian Games champions reached three finals this season apart from winning the Paris event.

Standing in front of them in the opening round will be the veteran Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. The three-time world champions have left the Indians with a lot of heartbreaks in the past.

Double Olympics medallist PV Sindhu will also face an acid test this week with world No. 1 and top seed An Se Young of South Korea lined up in the second round once the Indian tames Germany’s Yvonne Li. Sindhu has shown that she has recovered well from the left knee injury that left her on the sidelines for four months.

With the legendary Padukone by her side, Sindhu matched Olympics champion Chen Yu Fei before marginally falling short in the quarterfinals in the French Open. The 68-year-old Padukone will also be a constant source of inspiration for Lakshya Sen, who received a big boost in his race for Olympics qualification with a semifinal finish at the French Open.