Saina Nehwal seeded fifth, PV Sindhu gets ninth seed for Rio Games

Saina Nehwal is India’s top seeded player for the Rio Games. (Source: Express file)

The draws for the badminton event for Rio 2016 Olympics were announced on Tuesday and there is some happy news for India. The Indian players for badminton have got a rather easy grouping for the competition.

In the women’s singles, India’s star player Saina Nehwal has been placed in Group G and seeded fifth for the competition. She will have Maria Ulitina and Lohaynny Vicente as her competition in the group. The other player for India in the women’s draw, PV Sindu has been drawn in Group M and she has been given the seed ninth. She will be up against Michelle Li and Laura Sarosi in the group stage.

In the men’s singles competition, India’s only entry in the competiton, K Srikanth has been seeded ninth for the tournament. The player has been slotted in group H with Nehri Hurskainen of Sweden and Lino Munoz.

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India’s another entry in women’s doubles, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa are in Group A. This means that they will compete against top seends M Matsutomo-A Takahashi of Japan, E Muskens-S Piek and P Supajiraku-S Taerattanachai.

In the men’s draw, Manu Attri and Reddy have been placed in Group D.

The Rio Games will be held from August 5 to 21 in Brazil.