BWF tournaments Mar 2024

[sameerph]

^^ Sindhu plays Olympics champion Chen Yufei of China next, world #2. 2 very good comeback wins by Sindhu but expecting her to beat Yufei will be too much at this stage.

Srikanth lost a close one 20-22 in third game against 17th ranked Chinese Lu. Even while he is playing Srikanth keeps losing these matches.

Trasa-Gayatri with a good win over 6th seeded Japanese pair to move to QF. Good for their olympic chances.

SatChi and Lakshya still to come today.

[Dinesh]

Lakshya upsets the WR# 4 (Asian games gold medalist) to reach his first QF of the year, as well . Top seeds SatChi won their R2 in straight games.

[Sin Hombre]

Everyone except Prannoy has played well here. Ashwini/Tanisha lost in 3 very close games as did Srikanth.

Next round will be the end of the road for PVS and Treesa/Gayatri. Lakshya's half of the draw is very weak now with Axelsen also getting beat and Lakshya has chances to make a deep run to the finals here.

[sameerph]

Excellent win by Lakshya, next he is up against #12 Loh Kean Yew from Singapore. Hope Lakshya continues his run here.

Road to Paris updated points for marginal players is -

15 Weng Hong Yeng - 58750
16 Ng Tze Yong - 58735
17 Lakshya - 57571
18 Lu Guang Zu - 56691
19 Lin Chun Yi - 54606

Lakshya and Lu Guang are still alive this week, Srikanth could have helped Lakshya by winning against Lu yesterday. Looks like it will be a close race between these for last 2 spots. Weng and Lu may not be eligible for qualification themselves as 2 Chinese are already ahead of them but they can blok path of those like Lakshya by finishing ahead of them and in top 16.

[pancakesdonuts]

Amazing performance by Sen!! Now he leads 6-4 h2h against Li Shifeng. Also, Sat-Chi continuing their dominance in the BWF circuit

[sameerph]

Sindhu lost a very close one 24-22,17-21,18-21 against Olympic champion Chen Yufei.

Despite the loss, this must be one of the best matches played by Sindhu in quite a while. Looks like having Prakash Padukone courtside as coach has made vital difference in her approach.

[rajitghosh]

Sindhu won her R2. I didn’t realize BWF streams matches for free on YouTube, so I had a chance to watch this match. A good comeback win. There was a moment when her opponent mounted a comeback in the 3rd game (12-13) but PVS played a solid game to stop her.

French Open:

R2: P V Sindhu (11) 13-21 21-10 21-14 Beiwen Zhang (USA,10).

First QF of the year for PVS.

Do you have the YouTube link?

[Dinesh]

^^^ Look up BWF TV.

Lakshya just won his QF encounter in 3 games with a dramatic final point to win the match. World champion Vitidsarn next (2-4 H2H).

SatChi comfortably through to the semifinals, as well.

[arjun2761]

The recorded streams are also available for later viewing at least in the US. I don't know if there are territorial restrictions on it.

[arjun2761]

I believe Lakshya Sen should be inside the top 16 based on his results thus far in the French Open in the race to Paris rankings. I think a title here will get him to 12-13 in the race.

[sameerph]

Yes, Lakshya is now #15 in race to Paris live rankings-

12 Loh Kean Yew - 62552
13 Lee Cheuk Yiu - 61219
14 Chou Tien Chen - 60822
15 Lakshya Sen - 59220
16 Weng Hong Yeng - 58750
17 Ng Tze Yong - 58735
18 Lu Guang Zu - 56691
19 Lin Chun Yi - 54606

He plays his junior compatriate and reigning wold champion Kunlavut next. Lakshya is 4-6 head to head against Kunlavut. They last played in 2023 world championships where Lakshya lost in 3 games.

SatChi play world #3 Korean pair whom they lost to in the final of Indian open last month but have a 4-3 edge in head to head.

Both tough matches as you would expect at this stage of a big tournament.

[pancakesdonuts]

Satchi can seal the title if they win semis as other side of the bracket looks weak. I hope Sen peaks in olympic. In-form he is just unbeatable. Sindhu even being up there still lags behind top-4 players (Chen Yufei, Akane Yamaguchi, An-se Young and Tai Tzu Ying). She needs to be seeded to avoid them in Round of 16. She is currently 6000 points behind 8th seed Beiwen Zhang after French Open results. I hope she makes the most out of the other tournaments left.

[Dinesh]

Lakshya lost in 3 games. SatChi through to the finals avenging their India Open loss against the Koreans.

[Sin Hombre]

This is also the venue for the Olympics so our good performances here is promising for medal prospects. The venue is considered a little driftier compared to normal venues so I guess that plays well to our strengths.

Lakshya getting back in form is good for our medal prospects but a top-8 seeding will bump that up more.

For PVS, a top-8 seeding is critical given women's singles has a lot less variance in results. Even here, the top-4 seeds were the four semifinalists. Fortunately, there are 4 Chinese in the top-10 and only 2 qualify so she only has to catch up with Beiwen Zhang.

[sameerph]

Yes, as of now top 4 ranked players seem to be a cut ahead of those ranked below that. The way I look at it is Sindhu will have to beat 2 of them to get a medal at olympics ( or hope that someone else upsets them.). If she gets a seed, she would avoid top 4 till QF, but would it be better to rather catch them early in the tournament to upset them. Good thing is Sindhu has shown that she can play at that level in her match against Chen Yufei.

Good that Lakshya is back into Paris Olympic reckoning now. Needs to ensure though that he keeps getting 1-2 wins in every remaining tournament now at least to remain at that level.