With a dominating start to their campaign in the Vodafone Premier Badminton League 2, powered by Martuti Suzuki, where they beat Hyderabad Hunters 5-0, Awadhe Warriors will look to continue their winning run when they take on Delhi Acers in their own backyard at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium, on Thursday.
And leading from the front would be Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal. Srikanth is coming into the tie at the back of a wonderful win and would look to maintain his momentum, while Saina will look to bounce back from a disappointing start to start her winning run.
“I am really happy about our last match. We would want to continue with the form we are in after winning the match 5-0. Every match is important and all teams are strong,” Kidambi Srikanth said on the eve of Awadhe Warriors first home game.
“The 11 point format has seen players have match points and still lose the game, so we need to be really focused and not let the win get to our heads,” Srikanth added.
While the Warriors will look to make it two in two, they however, will be up against a strong challenge from the defending champions Delhi Acers, who will be eager to open their account after two disappointing losses.
“We have dropped points in winning situations and we have worked hard in training so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes again. Awadhe Warriors are a very strong team and each point will be hard fought,”said the national women’s team coach and coach of Delhi Acers, Madhumita Bisht.
There will be a lot riding on the shoulders of the Danish heavyweight Jan O Jorgensen and South Korea’s Son Wan Ho who can arguably be termed as the most powerful singles players in tournament. The Acers will also have the Russian pair firing smashes in their doubles tie against V Shem Goh, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist and Markis Kido, another Olympian.
The singles tie will see a juicy encounter between Jan O Jorgensen (Delhi Acers) take on Kidambi Srikanth (Awadhe Warriors). Even though, that will be one of the most intriguing match of the tie, the women’s singles tie will see Saina Nehwal looking to make a comeback after she suffered a loss to the current Olympic Champion, Carolina Marin after two hard fought games.