Mumbai, March 3, 2015: India’s leading Women’s and Men’s players, Saina Nehwal and K. Srikanth, will lead the country’s challenge against World’s best badminton players, at the upcoming Yonex All England Open Badminton Championship, as over 200 of the biggest names in badminton will get set for the Super Series tournament. The first Super Series of the year will be telecast live across the Star Sports starting March 5.

Star Sports to telecast Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships 2015 live

Saina Nehwal, unbeaten in 2015, is one of the favourites for the title. The third seed will be looking to better her quarterfinals appearance last year where she lost to Wang Shixian of China. She along with Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta will represent India in the Women’s category.

K. Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap will be leading a 11-member strong Men’s contingent for India this year. K. Srikanth is the highest ranked Indian men’s player in the international circuit with a world ranking of 4 and is the first Indian to win a Super Series Premier Men’s title. Having defeated former World No. 1 Lin Dan to win the China Open Super Series Premier in 2014, Srikanth is India’s best chance to succeed Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand as the third Indian to win the Men’s singles title at the Championships.

The Yonex All England Open Championships is a keenly followed affair for Indian badminton fans with Pullela Gopichand’s triumph in the 2001 edition of the All England Badminton Championship still fresh in the mind of the Indian Badminton fans. Gopichand became the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone won the Championships in 1980.

The Yonex All England Open Badminton Championship is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious badminton tournaments, played annually. This year the tournament is being played at the Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham, England. The tournament will be played under five categories- Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles.

Indian Line-up at the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships 2015:

Women Singles

• Saina Nehwal

Women’s Doubles

• Ashwini Ponnappa + Jwala Gutta

Men’s Singles

• K Srikanth, P Kashyap, HS Pronnoy, Anand Pawar, Ajay Jayaram

Men’s Doubles

• D Guru Prasad + Venkatesh Prasad, S Sanjeeth + Jagdeesh Yadav, Manu Attri + Sumeeth Reddy

Mixed Doubles

• Ashwini Ponnappa + Vladimir Ivanov

The tournament will be telecast live on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports HD 2.

Tags: Ashwini Ponnappa, Badminton, Jwala Gutta, K Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap, Saina Nehwal, Star Sports, Super Series, Yonex All England Open Badminton Championship