International Series good for Indian shuttlers: Gopichand

HYDERABAD: Former National champion Ruthvika Shivani and Shreyansh Jaiswal are the top seeds in the India International Series which kicks off at the Pullela Gopichand Academy on Tuesday.
An international series, which is a Grade-7 tournament, will offer some much needed ranking points for players. This is the reason why Badminton Association of India with the support of Telangana government has brought this tournament to India.
Disclosing this here, chief coach Pullela Gopichand said that it is a great opportunity for Indian players to improve their ranking.
"Our players are spending thousands of rupees and participating in several international tournaments for ranking points. With these type of tournaments they can earn good ranking points. As we have the option of getting just one tournament we bid for this with the support of the Telangana government. Many Indian players can get points from this meet," Gopi said.
Gopichand’s daughter Gayatri will also be competing in this tournament. The junior players use these sort of tournaments to enter the big league.
About 18 Malaysians and 10 Nepal shuttlers are also participating in this tournament in which Indians are expected to dominate.
Ruthvika, who got a bye in the first round, is expected to reach the semifinals without much difficulty. From the bottom-half of the draw second seed Ying Ying Lee of Malaysia is expected to face tough challenge from third seed Rituparna Das and fifth seed Rasika Raja.
In men's singles, Shreyansh begins against Prem Singh Chouhan and may find the going tough in the third round against Jia Wei Tan of Malaysia. Second seed Abhishek Yelegar starts against unseeded Malaysian Zhong Rui Goh.
While qualifying matches will be played on Tuesday, the main draw will start on Wednesday.
The tournament will be inaugurated by Allipuram Venkateshwar Reddy, chairman, Sports Authority of Telangana on Wednesday.