PV Sindhu pulled out of the All England Championships on Monday as the shuttler and her Indonesian coach Irwansyah 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 the Swiss Open Super-300 next week. “Sindhu is not playing the All England because of the situation in Dubai. She will compete in the Swiss Open next week,” Mishra told TOI.
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A limited number of flights from Abu Dhabi resumed operations as of Monday afternoon, but Dubai Airport remains closed.The rest of the Indian team is in Birmingham for the Super-1000 tournament, which starts on Tuesday.Meanwhile, the Indian shuttlers will try to break the 25-year-old jinx at this prestigious championship. Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) were the only Indians to win the All England Championships.Saina Nehwal (2015), Lakshya Sen (2022) reached the final, while the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand reached the last four stages in 2022 and 2023.Lakshya may have a tough time this year as he drew top seed Shi Yuqi of China in the first round. Fast-rising men’s singles Ayush Shetty will start against Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan and may face Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen next.India’s top doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will face the Malaysian duo of Aaron Tai and Kang Khai Kang Xing in the first round. A win could pit them against Chen Bo Yang and Liu Yi of China in the second round.Treesa and Gayatri have done well in this tournament but have a tough first round against Sayaka Hirota and Ayako Sakuramoto. If they beat the Japanese, they can face the seventh Chinese duo of Li Yi Jing and Luo Xu Min.
