Yonex Sunrise India Open 2021 will be the first international tournament that Chinese players participate in since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. It will also be marked by the absence of most top players from Indonesia.
Shi Yu Qi is the most notable name present in the list of entries from China. Other players from China include Lu Guang Zu, Han Cheng Kai / Zhou Hao Dong, Huang Kai Xiang / Liu Cheng, Zheng Yu / Li Wen Mei and Liu Xuan Xuan / Xia Yu Ting.
Men’s Singles
In men’s singles, big names like Kento Momota, Viktor Axelsen, Anders Antonsen and All England champion Lee Zii Jia will compete for the title. Chou Tien Chen, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, Chen Long and Jonatan Christie are not playing at the India Open this year.
Shi Yu Qi is currently ranked 11 in the race to Tokyo rankings. Playing the India Open will ensure that he does not slip out of the top 16 rankings. Slipping out of the top 16 rankings will mean not going to the Olympics.
Women’s Singles
Carolina Marin, PV Sindhu, Akane Yamaguchi, Ratchanok Intanon, An Se Young and Pornpawee Chochuwong will be present in the women’s singles draw.
Tai Tzu Ying, Chen Yu Fei, Nozomi Okuhara and He Bing Jiao have given the tournament a pass.
Men’s Doubles
In men’s doubles, the top three ranked pairs will be absent – Marcus Fernaldi Gideon / Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, Hendra Setiawan / Mohammad Ahsan and Lee Yang / Wang Chi Lin.
Their absence will be made up by the presence of Hiroyuki Endo / Yuta Watanabe, Takeshi Kamura / Keigo Sonoda, Choi SolGyu / Seo Seung Jae, Aaron Chia / Soh Wooi Yik and home favourites Satwiksairaj Rankireddy / Chirag Shetty.
Women’s Doubles
The women’s doubles category will be competed by Lee So Hee / Shin Seung Chan, Kim So Yeong / Kong Hee Yong, Jongkolphan Kititharakul / Rawinda Prajongjai, Chang Ye Na / Kim Hye Rin and Nami Matsuyama / Chiharu Shida.
Notable absentees are Japan’s Yuki Fukushima / Sayaka Hirota and Mayu Matsumoto / Wakana Nagahara.
Mixed Doubles
Yuta Watanabe / Arisa Higashino, Seo Seung Jae / Chae YuJung, Chan Peng Soon / Goh Liu Ying, Marcus Ellis / Lauren Smith, Hafiz Faizal / Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja and Thom Gicquel / Delphine Delrue are some of the strong candidates travelling to New Delhi.
Top players Zheng Si Wei / Huang Ya Qiong, Dechapol Puavaranukroh / Sapsiree Taerattanachai, Wang Yi Lyu / Huang Dong Ping and Praveen Jordan / Melati Daeva Oktavianti will not be playing the super 500 tournament.
