India’s top badminton doubles pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, are set to make their long-awaited return to action at the $1.15 million China Masters in Shenzhen this week. The Hangzhou Asian Games champions have been sidelined for three-and-a-half months since their quarterfinal loss at the Paris Olympics.
The Shenzen Arena will host the Super 750 tournament, where the former world No. 1 pairing will face world No. 10 Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan of Chinese Taipei in the opening round. Rankireddy and Shetty boast a perfect 3-0 record against the Taipei pair.
Last year, Rankireddy and Shetty were seeded No. 1 at the China Masters but lost to Wei Keng-liang and Chang Wang in the final. The Chinese pair went on to win the silver medal at the Paris Olympics.
In men’s singles, Lakshya Sen will face Olympic bronze medalist and seventh seed Lee Zii Jia in a rematch of the bronze playoff in Paris, where the Malaysian prevailed in three games. Sen has a 4-2 head-to-head record against Lee.
Priyanshu Rajawat, who was promoted from the reserve list, will take on Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo. Rajawat has yet to defeat the Indonesian in two meetings.
In women’s singles, PV Sindhu, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, and Anupama Upadhyaya will represent India. Sindhu, a former world champion, will open against Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand, against whom she holds an 18-1 record.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will face Chinese Taipei’s Hu Ling Fang and Jheng Yu Chieh in the women’s doubles opener, while the husband-wife pairing of N Sikki Reddy and B Sumeeth Reddy are India’s lone entry in mixed doubles.
