Star shuttlers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will head the Indian contingent at the Arctic Open Super 500 competition, which begins on Tuesday in Vantaa, Finland, as they attempt to recapture their momentum on the international scene after finishing without a medal at the Paris Olympics. This is Sindhu and Sen’s first event since the Olympic Games, and they are eager to reset their ambitions. The pair have reevaluated their performances and made tweaks to recapture their groove. Sindhu has hired Anup Sridhar and Korean superstar Lee Syun Il as her trainers, replacing her old coach, Indonesia’s Agus Dwi Santoso.
Sen, who just missed out on a medal in Paris, underwent physical testing at Austria’s Red Bull Arena. Sindhu, who was eliminated in the round of 16 in Paris, will face old adversary Michelle Li of Canada, while Sen, who lost in the bronze medal play-off, will face Rasmus Gemke of Denmark. Sindhu, a double Olympic medalist, is expected to defeat Li and may play 18-year-old Japanese phenom, Tomako Miyazaki, the 2022 junior world champion, in the following round, an opponent she lost to earlier this year at the Swiss Open.
Sen sees this as an opportunity to exact revenge on Gemke, who defeated him at the India Open in 2023. If he defeats Gemke, he may face seventh-seeded Chou Tien Chen Kidambi Srikanth, who returns to play at the Macau Open after a four-month injury layoff, will participate in the qualifications with younger countrymen Kiran George and Sathish Kumar Karunakaram. In the women’s singles, in addition to Sindhu, in-form Malvika Bansod and Aakarshi Kashyap are competing.
Malvika, who advanced to the quarterfinals of the China Open Super 1000, will face World No. 24 Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei in the opening round, while Aakarshi will face Germany’s Yvonne Li.
Another talented player, Unnati Hooda, who won the 2022 Odisha Masters, will face Israel’s Heli Neiman in the qualifications. While there is no Indian participation in men’s doubles, Rituparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda will participate in women’s doubles, while Sathish will team up with Aadya Variyath in mixed doubles.