London Olympics: Saina handed a good draw, tough for doubles pairs

World number five Saina Nehwal’s chances of bagging India’s maiden Olympic medal in badminton received a major boost on Monday when the 22-year-old was handed a good draw till the quarterfinals.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist was clubbed with world number 55 Lianne Tan of Belgium and world number 65 Sabrina Jaquet of Switzerland in Group E. Saina hasn’t played both the girls before.

Only the group leader would qualify for the knock out stage.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Saina is expected to face 14^th seed Yao Jie of Netherlands. The veteran Jie trails the Indian ace 2-3 in head-to-head records and hasn’t managed to beat Saina since 2009.

The Indonesia Super Series Premier champion’s first real test could come at the quarterfinal stage where she faces fifth seed and two-time All England champion Tine Baun of Denmark.

Baun, however, hasn’t been in best of form this year and has lost to Saina in their last two meetings.

If Saina manages to clear the last eight hurdle, she could come across her first Chinese opponent – top seed and world champion Yihan Wang.

The Indian ace came close to beating her 2006 junior world championship nemesis in last year’s Indonesia Super Series and should be confident of registering her maiden victory over the Chinese girl if they face off in the semifinals.

Decent draw for Kashyap

While Saina was handed a good draw, men’s singles star P Kashyap should at least aim to reach the knock out stage in his maiden Olympic appearance.

The world number 23 has been clubbed with Vietnam’s Tien Minh Nguyen and Yuhan Tan of Belgium. Kashyap has already beaten the number 10 seed Nguyen twice before and given his style of play could once again spring a surprise.

Tough for doubles stars

However, the doubles stars had no such luck in the draw and would have to play exceptionally well to move beyond the group stages.

All the groups in the doubles events are of four teams each and the top two teams from each group would qualify for the quarterfinals.

World championship bronze medallist Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa have been paired with world number five Mizuki Fujii/Reika Kakiiwa of Japan, world number 10 Chen Wen Hsing/Chien Yu Chin of Chinese Taipei and world number 13 Shinta Mulia Sari/Yao Lei of Indonesia in Group B.

While the Indian combination has a 1-2 head-to-head record with the first two pairs, they are 0-3 down against the Indonesians.

In the mixed doubles, Jwala and V Diju are in a group of death with all their three opponents having the experience of either winning a world championship or a Olympic gold in the past.

The world number 13 combination has been placed in Group C along with 2009 world champions Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark, third seed Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad of Indonesia and world number nine Lee Yong Dae and Ha Jung Eun of Korea.

The Indian pair has beaten only the Koreans in the past and have always found it difficult to overcome the Chinese and Danish combinations.