HYDERABAD, January 24: Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu qualified for the BWF World Tour Finals scheduled to be held in Bangkok from January 27 to 31.
Despite reaching the semifinals, the men’s doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and mixed doubles pair of Satwik and Ashwini Ponnappa failed to make it to the Finals.
Only the top eight players and teams in the Tour rankings will make it to the year-end event. The Finals were originally scheduled to be held in China in December but due to the pandemic the event was postponed to January.
Though Srikanth did not do much in the two events he managed to stay in the top-eight as all the Chinese and Japanese shuttlers pulled out of these three events due to fears over the novel coronavirus.
In men’s singles, Srikanth is ranked seven in Tour rankings while his world ranking is No.14.
Srikanth was forced to withdraw after his roommate Sai Praneeth tested positive. However, Srikanth tested negative on Friday and if he tests negative again on Monday he will be allowed to play from Wednesday. The former world No.1 has already started practicing with his teammates.
Meanwhile, Sai Praneeth was discharged from the hospital on Saturday. He went directly to the airport from the quarantine centre. The isolation rules for all Indian team members are waived off from Sunday.
World champion Sindhu managed to make it to the Finals. The world No.7 is ranked No.10 in the Tour rankings. Luckily for Sindhu, there are three Thailand players in top eight and also Nozomi Okuhara of Japan. Only two players from each country are eligible and Okuhara had already pulled out of all the three tournaments and that helped Sindhu to qualify.
The draw for the Finals will be held on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Carolina Marin and Viktor Axelsen won the women’s singles and men’s singles titles in the Thailand Open on Sunday. These two have won the last week’s tournament as well. (TNN)
