Daijiworld Media Network - Asan (South Korea)
Asan (South Korea), Aug 3: Teenage sensation Tanvi Sharma and former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth will lead India's campaign at the Korea Masters 2026 badminton tournament, which begins in Asan on Tuesday.
The 17-year-old Tanvi heads into the BWF Super 300 event in excellent form after clinching her maiden BWF World Tour title at the Taipei Open on Sunday. She defeated Vietnam's Nguyen Thuy Linh in the final to become only the fourth Indian woman, after Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu and Devika Sihag, to win a BWF Super 300 or higher title.
With two-time Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu taking a break and Unnati Hooda skipping the tournament, third seed Tanvi will be India's highest-ranked player in the women's singles draw.
She will be joined by Anmol Kharb, Malvika Bansod, Ashmita Chaliha, Aakarshi Kashyap, Rakshitha Sree Santhosh Ramraj, Isharani Baruah, Shriyanshi Valishetty, Tanya Hemanth and Mansi Singh in the women's singles competition.
In the men's singles, third seed Kidambi Srikanth returns to competitive action for the first time since his opening-round exit at the Canada Open in July.
Earlier this season, Srikanth enjoyed an impressive run at the US Open, defeating Malaysia's Paris Olympics bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia and Japan's Yudai Okimoto before finishing runner-up to Chinese Taipei's Su Li Yang.
India's men's singles contingent also includes Kiran George, Tharun Mannepalli, Mithun Manjunath, Rounak Chouhan and Saneeth Dayanand, while S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian and Tushar Suveer will begin their campaign in the qualifying rounds.
India's top men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will miss the tournament, with Satwiksairaj continuing to recover from the shoulder injury he sustained at the Indonesia Open in June.
World No. 77 pair Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu will spearhead India's challenge in the men's doubles event, while Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra will lead the women's doubles campaign.
India will also field three mixed doubles pairs -- Ishaan Bhatnagar and Shruti Mishra, Dhruv Rawat and Maneesha K, and Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram and Radhika Sharma.
The Korea Masters, a BWF Super 300 tournament, will be held from August 4 to 9. The matches will be streamed live in India on the BWF TV YouTube channel, while there will be no live television broadcast.