India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu was handed a first-round bye in the women’s singles draw for the BWF World Championships 2023, scheduled in Copenhagen, Denmark, from August 21 to 27. Sindhu may, however, come up against Japanese ace Nozomi Okuhara, in the second round.
The World Badminton Championships 2023 draw was held at the Badminton World Federation headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday.
In the men’s singles, Indian shuttlers received favourable draws. Ninth seed HS Prannoy will open his campaign against Finland’s Kalle Koljonen, ranked 56th in the world. Lakshya Sen, the 11th seed, will open against world No. 110 Georges Julien Paul of Mauritius. Kidambi Srikanth, 20th in the badminton world rankings, was unseeded in the draw and will face a much tougher opponent in Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto, ranked 15th.
Men’s doubles second seeds Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were handed a bye in the opening round and so were Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, the 15th seeds in women’s doubles.
PV Sindhu, the 2019 world champion, silver medallist in 2017 and 2018 and bronze medal winner in 2013 and 2014, is India’s most successful player in the history of the world badminton championships.
