India Open: Satwik-Chirag duo India's strongest medal hope

NEW DELHI: The India Open has always carried a sense of promise for Indian badminton. This year, that promise is amplified, quite literally, with the tournament moving into the iconic badminton hall of the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!It’s the same venue where the sport was held during the 1982 Asian Games. The spotlight in men’s singles immediately falls on an all-Indian first-round clash between Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty, a meeting that pits pedigree against momentum. PV Sindhu’s presence lends the tournament its familiar centre of gravity. The two-time Olympic medallist and 2017 India Open champion begins against Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Linh, carrying confidence from a semifinal run at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 last week.In the same half, Malvika Bansod will test herself against Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po. Kidambi Srikanth, the 2015 champion, also returns with something to prove. Having reached finals at the Malaysia Masters Super 500 and the Syed Modi International last year, he opens against Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-Yi in a match that could set the tone for his season.India’s strongest medal hopes once again rest heavily on Satwik and Chirag. The men’s doubles pair have always been at the business end of the tournament, reaching two finals in the last four editions and winning the title in 2022. Their 2025 season underlined their elite status — runners-up at the Hong Kong Open and China Masters, bronze at the World Championships and a knockout-stage finish at the World Tour Finals — even if the Malaysia Open ended in a quarterfinal exit last week.