Chetan, Saina to lead Indian challenge in Thailand, Philippines

New Delhi, June 10 (UNI) Saina Nehwal will be hoping to repeat her exploits last year as she spearheads the Indian challenge in the women's competition at the Philippines Open next month.

Saina became the first Indian woman shuttler to win a four-star event last year by clinching the single's title.

The Badminton Association of India (BAI) has named Saina, Aditi Mutatkar, Jwala Gutta, Shruti Kurien and Trupti Murgunde and Aparna Balan to take part in the Thailand Open (July 3-8) and Philippines Open (July 17-22).

In the men's section, Chetan Anand and Anup Sridhar will lead the Indian challenge. Nikhil Kanetkar, P Kashyap, Anand Pawar, Ajay Jairam, Rohan Castelino, Rupesh Kumar, Sanave Thomas and V Diju are the other men shuttlers selected for the two tournaments.

The inclusion of Chetan and top women's doubles combination of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien for the two tournaments seemed to have sorted out the wrangling between the players and BAI over the question of mandatory attendance of camps by the players.

The trio was dropped from the Sudirman Cup world mixed team event after they did not join the camp, protesting BAI's move to stop their individual entries in Singapore Open and Indonesian Open.

It led to the players engaging in a war of words with BAI which needed the intervention by Sports Ministry.

BAI also named 16 players (men and women) for the junior Asian badminton championship in Kuala Lumpur from July 15 to 22.

Squad for Thailand Open and Philippines Open: Men: Chetan Anand, Anup Sridhar, Ajay Jairam, Nikhil Kanetkar, P Kashyap, Anand Pawar, Rohan Castelino, Rupesh Kumar, Sanave Thomas, V Diju Women: Saina Nehwal, Trupti Murgunde, Aditi Mutatkar, Jwala Gutta, Shruti Kurien, Aparna Balan Squad for Asian Junior Badminton Championship: Men: Guru Sai Dutta, Aditya Alango, Sumit Reddy, Saurabh Verma, K Tarun, Nandluri, Anil Kumar Raju, Ran C Vijal Women: Arundhati, Sikki Reddy, PC Tulasi, Parsa Naqvi, Ashwini Ponappa, Nitya Sosale, Ruth Misha, J Shruti Reserves: Mundra Dhhinje, Pradnaya Gadre UNI PDS AKD RAI1835