Canada Open: Fourth seed Lakshya Sen hopes to regain form as defending champion

With fond memories of his past, defending champion Lakshya Sen will look to end his title drought when he begins his campaign at the Canada Open badminton tournament here on Tuesday.

The world No 14 Sen is the only Indian competing in the BWF World Tour Super 500 meet who will compete in the Paris Olympics.

The reigning Commonwealth Games gold medallist’s form has slipped since his Canada Open triumph around this time last year as he is yet to win a title since then.

Sen will look to find his rhythm back as he gears up for the Paris Olympics, which begins in less than a month’s time.

With a No 4 seeding, Sen finds himself in the bottom half of the draw which also features the Japanese duo of Kodai Naraoka (WR 6) and Koki Watanabe (WR 20).

The former world championship bronze medallist Sen will start against a qualifier and may head into a potential quarterfinal clash with Hong Kong’s WR 23 NG Ka Long Angus.

There are three other Indians in the men’s singles main draw. Priyanshu Rajawat will face eighth seed Rasmus Gemke of Denmar .Rajawat recently had a notable last-eight finish in the US Open Super 300 event, wherein he lost to Lei Lax Xi.

Kiran George will take on Yushi Tanaka of Japan, while Ayush Shetty is the fourth Indian in the draw, starting his campaign against the sixth seed Watanabe (6).

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On a high after her semifinal finish in the US Open last week, Malvika Bansod will face Julie Dawall Jakobsen of Denmark in her opening women’s singles fixture.

Malvika is also in the bottom half of the draw which has WR 14 Nozomi Okuhara as the second seed.

But her immediate next challenge may be against WR 21 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark. The Danish player has got a fourth seed and could be Malvika’s last-16 challenger.

If she is able to overcome the pre-quarters hurdle, Malvika may face fifth seed Sung Shuo Yun, who is WR 24.

Anupama Upadhyaya will face Rachael Darragh of Ireland while Tanya Hemanth will take on a qualifier among other Indians in the women’s singles.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand are seeded third and have got a bye into the round of 16.

They will await the winners of Natasja Anthnisen (Denmark) and Alyssa Tirtosentono (Netherlands) and local favourites Chloe Hoang and Eliana Zhang.

The men’s doubles will have Krishna Prasad Ganga and Sai Pratheek K as the only Indian challengers, in absence of the star duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy.

They will face Lap Kan Kern Pong and Larry Pong in their opening round clash.