Popat will take on African badminton champion

New Delhi: The Indian badminton contingent had mixed luck in terms of draw for the Olympics as national women’s champion Aparna Popat and Nikhil Kanetkar find themselves pitted against relatively easier opponents in the opening round while Abhinn Shyam Gupta runs into a top-ranked player.

According to the draw released by the International Badminton Federation on Sunday, world No. 27 Popat will take on African champion and 64th ranked Michelle Edwards of South Africa in the first round of the women’s singles event.

In the men’s singles, Kanetkar will play top Spanish shuttler Sergio Llopis while Gupta will have to face world No. 16 Tae Song-park of South Korea in the opening round.

Though Llopis, ranked 44th in the world, is four places above Kanetkar in the rankings, the Indian is considered to be the favourite to move into the second round as he had comfortably won the only encounter between the two at the Mauritius Open last year.

However, advancing to the second round will mean a likely face-off with former world champion Peter Gade of Denmark, who faces a first-round tie with Taiwan’s Chien Yu Hsiu, an early All-England casualty.

But it would not be an easy outing for Gupta who will have to take on the in-form Park at the Gaudi Olympic Stadium.

Crossing the first hurdle is also not going to relieve the pressure on Gupta by any means as fourth seed Bao Chunlai of China will be his most likely opponent in the second round.

In the women’s event, the only trouble for Popat in the first round could be her unfamiliarity of the opponent. Popat has never faced Edwards before and even though it might appear an easy outing for her, she would surely have to guard against any surprises.

Meanwhile, top seed Lin Dan drew a tricky first round opponent in the form of Singapore’s Ronald Susilo. Lin, known as “Super Dan”, is a hot favourite to underline Chinese supremacy in the sport.

But Susilo was one of the few players to cause Lin discomfort on his way to the coveted All-England title in March, putting up stout resistance in the second set of their semi-final before bowing out.