Thursday, August 1, 2013

BWF Badminton World Championship 2013

The badminton world championship 2013 is scheduled to be held next month in August. Nearly 400 of the world's top ranked players are expected to participate in the tournament, which will be held in Guangzhou in China from 05-Aug-2013 to 11-Aug-2013.

The tournament is held once every year, and is the most prestigious tournament in the badminton world, and the winners get the honour of being officially known as the 'world champion'.

Here's the list of Indian players who will be playing at the BWF badminton world championships 2013.

Men's singles event
P Kashyap
Ajay Jayaram

Women's singles event
Saina Nehwal
PV Sindhu

Women's doubles
Ashwini Ponnappa and Pradnya Gadre
Aparna Balan and N.Sikki Reddy

Men's doubles
Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu
Akshay Dewalkar and Pranav Chopra

This is the first time ever that India has been able to field such a big contingent of badminton players for the world championship tournament. Only the top 50 players in the world in each event are eligible to play at the tournament, and hence this strong team is an ample indication of India's growing strength in the world of badminton.

The last time that players from India had won a medal at this prestigious tournament was when Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa had won the bronze medal at the 2011 BWF badminton world championships that was held at London two years back.

Saina Nehwal has got a relatively easy draw at the championships and the first Chinese player that she is likely to play against is in the semi-finals. As per the tournament rules, all players reaching the semi-finals are assured of at least a bronze medal.