Tokyo Olympics: Easy draw for Sindhu and Praneeth; Tough task for Chirag-satvik

India's biggest medal hope at the Tokyo Olympics from the game of badminton, PV Sindhu, has been handed a comparatively easy draw at the upcoming sporting extravaganza. Sindhu, who was the silver medallist in at the Rio Olympics in 2016, will combat Hong Kong's world number 34 Cheung Ngan Yi and Israel's Ksenia Polikarpova, ranked 58th, within the league stages.

Sindhu, seeded sixth, is placed in Group J of women's singles. She is taken into account one among the favourites for the trophy within the absence of reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin, who is sidelined because of a knee injury.

In the men's singles event India's B Sai Praneeth too will face unfancied opponents within the men's singles event. Praneeth, seeded 13th, are going to be up against world no 29 Mark Caljouw of Netherlands and Isreal's Misha Zilberman, ranked 47.

Chirag and Satwiksairaj, however, were handed a troublesome draw which was announced by BWF on Thursday.

The Indian duo will need to compete against top seed Indonesian pair of Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, Chinese Taipei's world no 3 Lee yang and Wang Chi Lin and England duo of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy, ranked 18th.

In the singles competition, the highest player from each group will qualify for the knock-out stages.