Saina seeded 3rd for World Championships

New Delhi: India`s top shuttler Saina Nehwal has been seeded No.3 in women`s singles for the upcoming World Championships to be held between Aug 5-11 in Guangzhou, China.

The Olympic bronze medallist has been given an easy draw with a first round bye. The first seeded player she can encounter could be in the third round against Thai 15th seed Porntip Buranaprasertsuk. The Hyderabadi is expected to pass the round and face Japanese eighth seed Minatsu Mitani in the quarters. However, her real test will be up against China`s World No.1 and reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui in the last four. Saina`s citymate P.V. Sindhu, seeded 10, has a tough ask against defending champion Yihan Wang of China whom she could face in the third round. In the men`s singles, Parupalli Kashyap for the first time in his career has been seeded (No.13) at the Tier-I event while Mumbai`s Ajay Jayaram has also made it into the main draw directly. In the men`s doubles, Tarun Kona-Arun Vishnu and Akshay Dewalkar-Pranaav Jerry Chopra qualified for the world meet while in women`s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa-Pradnya Gadre and N. Siki Reddy and Aparna Balan also entered the main draw. In mixed doubles, Kerala shuttlers Aparna Balan and Arun Vishnu and Ashwini Ponnappa with regular partner Tarun Kona will represent India. IANS