PV Sindhu withdraws from all UK markets as tensions rise in Middle East

PV Sindhu The badminton player withdrew from the All England Championships on Monday as she and her Indonesian coach Irvansa Adi Pratama were stuck in Dubai due to the situation in West Asia.Confirming the development, Badminton Association of India (BAI) secretary Sanjay Mishra told TOI that Sindhu will participate in next week’s Swiss Open Super-300 tournament. “Due to the situation in Dubai, Sindhu will not play in the All-England tournament. She will play in the Swiss Open next week,” Mishra told TOI.

As of Monday afternoon, a limited number of flights had resumed operations from Abu Dhabi, but Dubai’s airport remained closed.The rest of the Indian team will be in Birmingham for the Super-1000 tournament starting on Tuesday.Meanwhile, Indian badminton players will try to break a 25-year-old curse at the prestigious tournament. Prakash Padukone (1980) and Prela Gopichand (2001) is the only Indian to win the All England Championship.Saina Nehwal (2015), Laksha Sen (2022) have reached the finals, while women’s doubles pair Theresa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have reached the final four stages in 2022 and 2023.Laksha may have a tough time this year as he was drawn against China’s top seed Shi Yuqi in the first round. Fast-rising men’s singles badminton player Ayush Shetty will take on Indonesia’s Arvi Farhan and may next face Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien-chen.India’s top doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will face the Malaysian pair of Dai Yalun and Kang Kai Kangxing in the first round. If they win here, they could face China’s Chen Boyang and Liu Yi in the second round.Treesa and Gayatri performed well in this tournament, but they struggled in the first round against Sayaka Hirota and Ayako Sakuramoto. If they beat Japan, they could face seventh-seeded Chinese pair Li Yijing and Luo Xumin.