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Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen will be spearheading India's challenge for the Madrid Spain Masters competition starting from Tuesday.
As per Olympics.com, Sindhu, world number 11th in rankings, is yet to secure a Badminton World Federation (BWF) tour title this season. However, she was a part of India's gold medal winning team at the Badminton Asia Team Championships. Sindhu reached the round of 16 in the Swiss Open held recently. At the BWF Super 300 event, Sindhu is second seed behind Rio Olympic 2016 champion Carolina Marin of Spain, who is her arch-rival. In the women's competition, there will be players like Malvika Bansod and Ashmita Chaliha as well. The Indian men's badminton singles contingent will feature fifth-seed Lakshya and seventh-seed Kidambi Srikanth. Sen reached the quarterfinals of the French Open and All England Open, but could not make past the round two in the Swiss Open. Kidambi reached the semis of Swiss Open, making his first semis appearance at a BWF World Tour competition since November 2022. India's Kiran George and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran are also playing in the men's singles competition. India will be represented by MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila in the absence of the top-ranked pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. Krishna Prasad Garaga and KS Pratheek will also compete in men's doubles. Coming to the women's doubles category, the duo of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa has been seeded third and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand have been seeded fifth. Sathish Kumar Karunakaran-Aadya Variath and BS Reddy-N Sikki Reddy will represent the tricolour in the mixed doubles. Madrid Spain Masters 2024 badminton: India squad Men's singles main draw: Sathish Kumar Karunakaran, Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen Men's singles qualifiers: Mithun Manjunath, Sameer Verma, S Shankar Muthuswamy Women's singles main draw: Malvika Bansod, Ashmita Chaliha, PV Sindhu Men's doubles main draw: Krishna Prasad Garaga-Sai Pratheek K, MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila Women's doubles main draw: Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, Ashwini Bhat-Shikha Gautam, Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto Mixed doubles main draw: Sathish Kumar-Aadya Variyath. (ANI)
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