BWF World Championships: Advantage Saina Nehwal as PV Sindhu faces burden of expectation

As the 23rd edition of BWF World Championships is all set to begin from Monday, August 21 in Glasgow, India has a golden opportunity to showcase its might at the highest stage.

The focus will be on Women's singles stars PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal as the superstars of Indian badminton are gearing up to better their previous performances in the upcoming edition of the tournament.

Burden of expectations on Sindhu

Sindhu is the only shuttler from the country to have won more than one World Championships medal as she won back-to-back Bronze medals at 2013 and 2014 meets in Guangzhou and Copenhagen, respectively.

The 22-year-old though rose to prominence only after she stunned a star-studded Women's singles pack at Rio Olympics in August 2016, clinching a Silver after going down to Spain's Carolina Marin in the gold medal match.

Cut to August 2017, Sindhu is among the favourites to win the Glasgow World Championships. The upcoming campaign will be a unique test for the Indian shuttler as she has not faced the burden of being the frontrunner at a world meet ever before.

In Glasgow, Sindhu is seeded fourth and has received a first-round bye. The world number five will take on the winner of the opening-round tie between unseeded Kim Hyo Min (world number 41) and Haida Hosny (world number 82).

While world number one Tai Tzu Ying has pulled out of the event, Sindhu also does not have to face her arch-rivals Carolina Marin and Sung Ji Hyun in the initial stages of the tournament.

Having secured an easy draw, the Hyderabad shuttler's biggest test before the semi-final is a possible outing against fifth-seeded Chinese shuttler Sun Yu, against whom she has lost four times in seven meetings.

However, Sindhu believes previous records do not matter when it comes to World Championships and that she is not thinking too much ahead of the all-important meet.

"Honestly, I don't see any big difference among the top-20 players. As I always believe, it comes down to how well you play on the given day. Reputations don't matter. Staying focused is the biggest challenge," Sindhu said, as quoted by The Hindu.

She added: "My objective will be to keep raising the bar in each round ... not thinking too much about the draw and getting distracted. Ultimately, you have to keep winning."

Can Saina make a strong comeback?

2015 World Championships Silver medallist Saina, on the other hand, will face less pressure as the spotlight ahead of the world meet is on Sindhu and Men's singles favourite Kidambi Srikanth.

The world number 16 has not been in the best of forms ever since she suffered a knee injury at the Rio Games. The 27-year-old has been maintaining that doubts over her fitness have been hampering her performances at the highest level in the ongoing season.

Ever since winning the season-opening Malaysia Masters in January, Saina has struggled to produce consistent results. She has not gone past the R32 stage of a Superseries tournament yet this season.

Amid all the concerns, Saina's coach Vimal Kumar is confident of a good show from his ward. Saina has been handed a tricky draw, with a possible meeting against her familiar foe and second seed Sung Ji Hyun as early as in the third round.

If the Indian shuttler manages to get past the South Korean, she will have to face sixth seed He Bingjiao of China in the quarter-final.

"She has put in some good effort and if she can play to her potential then it is possible to beat the top players. Also this time, the focus is not on her. The limelight is all on Sindhu and Srikanth and that is a good thing," Vimal said, as quoted by the Times of India.

Saina faces a tough road, but the Indian shuttler has a good opportunity to gain her confidence back with a strong show in Glasgow. A win against one of the top shuttlers of the likes of Sung early in the tournament might just be the boost needed for the London Olympic bronze medallist to get back her best.