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The 2021 World Championship medallists Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen will face off against younger challengers at the selection trails for the upcoming Asian Games to be held at the Jwala Gutta Academy in Hyderabad from May 4-7.
The Badminton Association of India (BAI) has been conducting selection trials for major team championships since last year, with top 20 players in the BWF world ranking picked directly. The Asian Games in Hangzhou, China to be played from September 23-October 8, will have separate team championships for men and women followed by individual events in which India can have a maximum of two entries per event. Nine men's singles players and eight women's singles players have entered the trials for three spots each while there are four entries each in men's and mixed doubles and three in women's doubles. The selectors have proposed to pick one pair each for men's and women's doubles and two mixed doubles combinations through a round-robin tournament format to decide the final standings. The men's and women's singles players will be divided into two groups in Stage 1, with the top two players in each group progressing to Stage 2. The four players will face off again in a league format and the result of Stage 2 for players competing against each other for the second time will be considered for the final standings. For the doubles events, there will be only one stage with all pairs playing round-robin matches to decide the final standings. The selected players will join HS Prannoy, former world champion PV Sindhu, reigning Asian Champions Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and the women's doubles combination of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly. List of Players for Asian Games 2023 selection trials: Men's Singles: Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Priyanshu Rajawat, Mithun Manjunath, Sai Praneeth, Maisnam Meiraba, Bharat Raghav, Ansal Yadav, Siddhant Gupta Women's Singles: Saina Nehwal, Aakrshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, Ashmita Chaliha, Aditi Bhat, Unnati Hooda, Alisha Naik, Shriyanshi Valishetty, Anupama Upadhyay Men's Doubles: MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila, Krishna Prasad/Vishuvardhan, Suraj Goala/Pruthvi Roy, Nithin HV/Sai Pratheek, Kushal Raj/Prakash Raj Women's Doubles: Ashwini Bhat/Shikha Gautham, Tanisha Crasto/Ashwini Ponnappa, Radhika Sharma/Tanvi Sharma Mixed Doubles: Rohan Kapoor/Sikki Reddy, Sai Pratheek/Tanisha Crasto, Hariharan/Varshini, Hemagendra Babu/Kanika Kanwal. (ANI)
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