Saina, Prannoy eye China Open to seal berth at Dubai Final

Saina Nehwal recently beat PV Sindhu in the National Championships in India.

Newly-crowned national champions Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy will look to enhance their chances of qualifying for the Dubai Super Series Finals with a good performance at the $700,000 China Open Superseries Premier starting today.

Former World No.1 Saina upstaged Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu in the national finals last week to claim her third championship crown, while Prannoy stunned Kidambi Srikanth to clinch his maiden title at the 82nd edition of the event at Nagpur.

Interestingly, both Saina and Prannoy are ranked 11th in the Destination Dubai Ranking and are racing against time to book a berth at next month's Super Series Final with just two Super Series events - China Open and Hong Kong Open - left in the calender.

The 27-year-old Indian, who clinched a bronze medal at the Glasgow World Championship, will open her campaign against USA's Beiwen Zhang, while Prannoy will face a qualifier in the opening round.

However, Srikanth, who clinched four titles and reached five finals in this season, will be taking a break this week to nurse a muscle strain. Among others to pull out are Sameer Verma, Ajay Jayaram and B Sai Praneeth.

Sindhu has also been in impressive form this season as she clinched two super series titles - India Open and Korea Open - besides winning a silver at the World Championship. She too will be pumped up to get back to her winning ways after the setback against Saina. The 22-year-old will begin her journey against Japan's Sayaka Sato, who clinched the Indonesia Open this year.

If the Indian can cross the first two rounds, she might face off against Japan's Nozomi Okuhara, who had beaten her to a coveted gold at the Glasgow world championship in August after a marathon final.

Sourabh Verma will also be back in action after skipping the last two super series events due to fitness issues.