Saina pulls out of Syed Modi International, Lakshya eyes season's 5th title

Saina Nehwal pulled out at last moment to take some sheen off Syed Modi International, beginning here on Tuesday, when in-form Lakshya Sen will seek a third BWF World Tour title. Three-time former champion Saina, who has been battling illness and injuries, is going through a b patch, having lost six times in first round this season. 29-year-old from Hyderab has alrey pulled out of Premier Bminton League (PBL) to prepare for next season.

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Ors who will be missing out

World champion P V Sindhu has chosen to give tournament a miss. 18-year-old Lakshya, on or hand, will look to grab his maiden Super 300 crown this week following his title triumphs at two Super 100 events -- Dutch and SaarLorLux Open -- this year. focus will also be on men's doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won Thailand Open Super 500 title and n reached finals of French Open Super 750 this season. On a roll, Lakshya is coming into tournament after securing his fourth title in last three months at Scottish Open.  Indian, who has been in Denmark for a two and half month training-cum-competition stint, claimed title wins at Belgian International and Dutch and SaarLorLux Open. Lakshya is w set to break into world top 40 following his title win at Glasgow on Sunday and he will look for ar good outing here when he opens against France's Thomas Rouxel.

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Who all will be in action?

In women's singles, Mugdha Agrey will be one of Indian challenges. A host of Indian shuttlers, including 2016 winner Kidambi Srikanth, defending champion Sameer Verma and world championship bronze-medallist B Sai Praneeth, will eye top spot in men's singles this week. Third seed Srikanth, who h reached finals at India Open this year, will hope to end his two-year-long title drought and gar valuable points to arrest slide in his ranking in pre-Olympic year when he takes on Russia's Vlimir Malkov. Fourth seed Praneeth, ranked 10th, will meet Malaysia's Iskandar Zulkarnain in first round, while two-time champion Sameer Verma will hope to regain some form when he squares off against compatriot Ajay Jayaram in opening round. Sameer's elder bror Sourabh, a winner at two Super 100 events in Hyderab and Vietnam, will face Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu, who secured a stunning Hong Kong Open title earlier this month. Former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who grabbed title in 2012 and 2015, will lock horns with France's Lucas Corvee, while HS Prany crosses swords with China's Youth Olympic Games gold medallist Li Shi Feng. In doubles, all hopes will be on second-seeded men's pair of Satwiksairaj and Chirag as y open against Chinese combination of Di Zi Jian and Wang Chang.B Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri too will hope to put up a good show following ir title win at Infosys Foundation-India International Challenge on Sunday. In mixed doubles, Satwiksairaj and Ashwini Ponnappa will open against fellow Indians Dhruv Kapila and Meghana Jakkampudi, while Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy take on fourth-seeded Chinese pair of He Ji Ting and Du Yue in ir opener. In women's doubles, eighth-seeded Ashwini and Sikki will begin against Hong Kong's Ng Tsz Yau and Yuen Sin Ying.

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