India's top badminton stars PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen will return to BWF Tour action after almost a month at the Japan Masters Super 500 starting Tuesday.
While the Super 500 is not the biggest tournament in the badminton calendar, it's important in the context of the Indians' recent form. Both Sindhu and Lakshya are looking to rebuild some momentum in the second half of the season, after a disappointing Olympics (for differing reasons) in August, a recovery break and an indifferent comeback in October at the European swing.
The upcoming weeks - the Japan Masters followed by a Super 750 in China and the Syed Modi Super 300 at home - offers both singles players a chance to end their challenging season on a positive note. Indeed, both Sindhu and Lakshya reached Japan early to prepare better for the tournament (and were absent from Kidambi Srikanth's weeding over the weekend).
In Sindhu's case, she's also working with a whole new coaching team (Anup Sridhar and Lee Syun Il) post the Olympics and looking for a complete reset as she contends with not being the consistent top 10 player she was before. "I'm in good shape, physically and mentally fit. We've been working on different aspects, like speed and defence. I hope to perform well in Japan and China with their guidance," she said. Their current contract is only till the end of this year and these tournaments will be a test for both the player and coaches ahead of the next season.
The 29-year-old is not seeded at tournaments anymore and will start her campaign against eighth-seeded Thai Busanan Ongbamrungphan. But this may be a clash where ranking is irrelevant as Sindhu leads the Thai 18-1 in their head-to-head. And while her shock first-round exit to Canada's Michelle Li in Finland may have been a dent in her H2H equations, Sindhu will be confident of this opener.
Incidentally, a win could set up a rematch with Li (who plays Natsuki Nidaira), which gives Sindhu incentive. If she manages to get past both her old rivals, the quarterfinal opponent will likely be Chinese top seed Wang Zhi Yi (H2H 2-2).
The good news for Sindhu is that this is a comparatively good draw for her. If she can shake off the rust she showed initially in Europe and settle in like at the Denmark Open, she can get some good reps in on court and build good momentum.
At the other end is Lakshya Sen, who had a win-less run in the two European tournaments after the Olympics where he reached the bronze medal match beating higher ranked players.
There is no doubt that Lakshya has the game and physicality to challenge the best, but his mental blocks seem to have become an even bigger issue after the fourth-place finish in Paris. Indeed, he lost to Chou Tien Chen from a game up in Finland, after playing one of his career's best matches to beat him at the Olympics.
The only way out is to get into challenging matches and coming out with a win, and Japan and China may give him just the chance.
He starts against Malaysia's Leong Jun Hao, whom he leads 3-1 and should be confident of beating. The second round will be a potential match against eighth seed Anthony Ginting, who Lakshya has never lost to in 3 meetings. Their contrasting game styles means the Indian has an opportunity to get a confidence boosting win if his defence clicks. However, he is in a tricky quarter with the unseeded challengers like Lu Guang Zu and Toma Junior Popov along with second seed Kodai Naraoka, so he will need his A game to make a deep run.
The only Indian representation in doubles will be Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who are also looking for a deep run of their own that can bring back consistency to a now-erratic combination. They face Chinese Taipei's Hsu Yin-Hui and Lin Jhih Yun in their opening match, against whom they have a 2-0 record. But the second round will be against Chinese second seeds Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning, which could be a big challenge.
The Japan Masters begins with qualification on Tuesday and the Indian players will start their campaign on Wednesday.