Thaindian News March 20th, 2008 Hyderabad, A total of 230 shuttlers from 27 countries will vie for the top honours at Yonex Sunrise India Grand Prix Gold 2008, the world badminton Grand Prix event, beginning here April 1. Ten of the top 15 ranked players in the world will be in action at $120,000 tournament, the first-ever world badminton Grand Prix to be held in India. Yonex Ltd, Japan and Sunrise Pvt Ltd, Singapore are the title and main sponsors of this prestigious tournament organized by Badminton Association of India (BAI) in association with Radha Realty Corporation and NEB Sports. Being the last Grand Prix before Olympics, it has become a qualifying event and the players are looking for an opportunity to boost their chances of confirming their place or making their way to Beijing in August 2008. The tournament has attracted the large number of participants from a number of countries. Top names in the world of badminton including women’s singles world number one Xie Xing Fang and world number three Zhu Lin will be seen in action. Malaysia is sending the biggest contingent with as many as 35 players. Indonesia, China, Korea and England are also sending big contingents. “It is a historic day for the Indian badminton,” said V.K. Verma, president, BAI at a news conference, which coincided with an event in Malaysia, and where draws for the tournament took place. “Playing in front of home audience, this tournament would serve as the best opportunity for Indian players like Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal to qualify for Beijing Games,” he said. Former All England badminton champion Pullela Gopichand said it was a mix fortune for Indian players in the draw. Chetan Anand will be facing Andreas Adityawarman of Indonesia in the first round while in the women’s singles world number 29 Saina Nehwal will battle it out against Yu Hirayama of Japan, ranked 23. The men’s singles feature 64 players in the main draw. In the women’s singles there are 28 players in the main draw while four will qualify to the main event.
Press Trust of India Wednesday, March 19, 2008 (New Delhi) India's top shuttlers received a favourable draw in the $120,000 India Open Grand Prix as they avoided being pitted against any of the top 10 seeds in the first round. According to the draw for the tournament to be held from April 1-6 in Hyderabad, India's top male player Anup Sridhar, ranked 29th in the world, will take on Englishman Andrew Smith, placed three places below him, in the opening round. Sridhar, however, will have to first recover from a heel injury which forced him to retire midway at the Swiss Open last week. Anand Pawar, who has been on a roll recently, takes on Peru's Andres Corpancho, whom the Indian had beaten in his title run at the Portuguese International Championships. Pawar, ranked 101, had recently claimed the Austrian Open title as well. Chetan Anand has also landed against a comparatively easy opponent in 144th ranked Andreas Adityawarman of Indonesia in the first round, while Arvind Bhat gets a bye. On the women's side, Saina Nehwal would hope that the home advantage and crowd support can help her beat Japanese Yu Hirayama, ranked 11 places higher than her own 31st place. However, Trupti Murgunde got an unenviable draw as she was pitted against second seed Lan Lu of China. Among other Indians, Ajay Jayaram (244) will face 33rd ranked Yi Lu, while promising youngster P Kashyap (98) has been drawn against Singapore's Yong Zhao Ashton Chen (157) in men's section.
Earlier, their preparatory camp for the Thomas Cup Prelims was abandoned due to a lack of practice shuttles Bird-flu or not, I hope they have enough shuttles for the India Open
