Ho Chi Minh City: Top Indian women’s doubles shuttlers Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa have been seeded No.1 for the $50,000 Vietnam Open Grand Prix to be held at the Nguyen Du Stadium here from August 24 to 30.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallists have lately been in form, which has also helped them to reach their current, career-best ranking of World No.12. Jwala and Ashwini reached the finals of the US Open Grand Prix Gold and followed it up with a title win at the Canada Open Grand Prix in June.
They also reached the quarterfinals of the World Championships last week in Jakarta but faltered a step short of repeating their 2011 Worlds performance when they clinched a bronze.
The two will open their campaign here against a qualifying pair in the first round.
Apart from Jwala and Ashwini, Pradnya Gadre and N. Sikki Reddy have been seeded seventh while Aparna Balan will partner Prajakta Sawant in the same category.
Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Chopra, who also took part at the World Championships, have been seeded third in men’s doubles and will take on Canadian pair of Adrian Liu and Derrick Ng in their opener. Arun Vishnu and Alwin Francis is the other Indian pair in the category.
There will be four Indian pairs taking part in mixed doubles. Ashwini will partner Chopra, Vishnu with Aparna, Dewalkar will team up with Prajakta while Sikki will partner Tarun Kona.
In men’s singles, Mumbai’s Ajay Jayaram is the highest seeded Indian at No.4 while B. Sai Praneeth is No.5 and 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist R.M.V. Gurusaidutt at No.13. Anand Pawar, Subhankar Dey and Sameer Verma are unseeded in the category.
P.C. Thulasi and Saili Rane are the only Indians taking part in women’s singles.
(IANS)
