PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen look to regain form in Canada Open

Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will look to regain their form and earn valuable ranking points in the ongoing Olympic qualification cycle when they begin their campaign at the Canada Open World Tour Super 500 tournament here on TuesdayFormer world champion and twotime Olympic medallist Sindhu has hit a rough patch after returning from an injuryShe slipped to 12 in the BWF womens singles rankings and she will have make the best of the remaining time in the Paris Olympics qualification cycle May 1April 28 2024The 27yearold who sustained a stress fracture en route to winning her maiden Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham last year is still fighting to regain full fitnessShe was part of Indias bronze medal win at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships at Doha in February but has missed a few World Tour events this yearHer best this year has been a sliver at the Madrid Masters Super 300 event in April and since then she has made first round exits in two tournaments while in another she lost in the second roundSindhu finds herself in a relatively easy draw here facing local challenger Talia NG in the opening roundEighth seeded Japans Nozomi Okahara against whom Sindhu has a 98 winloss record is likely to be the Indians quarterfinal challenger should they overcome their respective first and second round hurdlesSindhu is in the half of topseeded Akane YamaguchiThe Japanese defeated Sindhu in the Singapore Open last month but the Indian still holds a 1410 winloss advantage over YamaguchiCommonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen too has slipped out of top10 with a slew of first round exits this yearThe 19ranked Sen has suffered firstround exits in four events with his best performance being the Indonesia Masters in January where he reached the quarterfinalsAlso Read Lakshya Sen makes shocking firstround exitSen is battling to regain form after he underwent a nose surgery for a deviated septum after the World Championships last August The surgery was followed by frequent illness and allergies for over eight months he saidRecovery was not really good Whenever I was into training I was getting injured or sick Then I had to take a step back for a bit because for the first two months I didnt have any idea that it could be this serious I made a lot of changes in my foot and also in the training load he told BWFUnlike Sindhu Sen has a tough road ahead as he is up against second seeded Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the opening round The Thai shuttler is a World Championship silver medallist in Tokyo last year and a threetime junior world championIn the mens doubles the Indian challenge will be led by Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Panjala who open their campaign against Julien Maio and William Villeger of FranceThe Indian duo had suffered a first round exit in the Taipei Open Super 300 event last monthWith PTI inputs