HYDERABAD: Six years after
Jwala Gutta and
Ashwini Ponnappa bagged a bronze at the Worlds, the biggest ever Indian doubles contingent fancies its chance of a medal at the BWF World Championships beginning in Glasgow on Aug 21.
Nine doubles teams apart from Prajakta Sawant and her Malaysian mixed doubles partner qualified for the World meet. Though the draw in the men's and women's team events is tough, Indians have a chance to finish on the podium in mixed doubles.
"Our teams have a chance in the mixed category. If they manage to pull off two big wins they will enter the medal round," said doubles coach Kim Tan Her.
But the Malaysian acknowledges that there is lot of difference between the top teams and the Indian pairs. "We have been working very hard, but still a lot needs to done if we want to match the best in the world," Kim said.
Seasoned campaigner
Ashwini Ponnappa and
Sumeeth Reddy
have an easy first round before they run into 13th seeds Yilyu Wang and Huang Dongping of China.
In the top half of the draw, 15th seeds Pranaav Chopra and
Sikki
Reddy got a bye in the first round and may face either Indo-Malaysian pair of Prajakta and Yogendran Krishnan or Lu Ching Yao and Chiang Kai Hsin of Chinese Taipei in the second. Pranaav-Sikki are expected to get past either of these pairs. In the pre-quarterfinals, they may face seventh seeds Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto.
The other Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and K Maneesha begin against Chun Hei Tam and Tsz Yau Ng of Hong Kong in the first round.
Kim said: "In a tournament like this, a couple of victories can change anything. But it is not easy," said the Malaysian, who was appointed as the doubles coach in 2015.
In women's doubles, Ashwini and Sikki are favourites against the Malaysian and Indonesian pair of
Anna Ching
and Ririn Amelia in the first round. But the draw gets tough from the second round as they will face second seeds Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen of Denmark.
The other two Indian teams of Meghana/Poorvisha Ram and Arathi Sara Sunil and
Sanjana Santosh have a tough draw.
The three men's doubles pairs - Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy, Shlok Ramachandran/MR Arjun and Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj - may find the going tough from the second round.
The Malaysian coach who produced some exciting results in recent months with players winning the Grand Prix Gold titles, is targeting 2020 for the first Super Series title. "We are progressing well. Our players are doing well in the GP Gold category. By 2019 I want to see the teams reach the Super Series semifinals and by 2020 I am hopeful that we can win the Super Series title as well," Kim said.