Badminton
Orleans Masters 2021: Preview, Indian team, schedule, LIVE stream, when and where to watch
The 2021 Orleans Masters tournament comes under the BWF World Tour and is the first of the Super 100 tournaments that will be held this year.
Saina Nehwal (Source: Getty Image)
The 2021 Orleans Masters tournament comes under the BWF World Tour and is the first of the Super 100 tournaments that will be held this year. The tournament started in 2012 and is organised by the Cercle Laïque des Tourelles Orléans (CLTO) in Paris France. The total prize money amounts to 75,000 US dollars.
This tournament is another major stage in the qualifying race for the Olympics where several Indian shuttlers will be looking forward to gaining some ground in the rankings race. Ace shuttlers like Saina Nehwal, who lost out early in the All England Open Badminton Championships, will be aiming to finish the tournament on a high and accumulate ranking points prior to the Olympics. PV Sindhu will not be competing at the event leaving Saina Nehwal as the only direct entry into the women' singles event from India. Apart from that, Kidambi Srikanth, N Sikki Reddy, Ashwini Ponappa and P Kashyap are a few of the notable names in the competition as well.
The upcoming Orleans Masters is set to kick off at the Palais Des Sports in Orleans, France. The dates for the same are from 23 to 28 March.
We take a brief look at the Indian competitors in this years edition of the Orleans Masters.
What are seedings in 2021 Orleans Masters
Men's Singles
The men's singles event makes up a majority of Indians competing at the event. In the men's events, Kidambi Srikanth has been given the first seed ahead of Kantaphon Wangcharoen and Hans-Kristian Vittinghus. Parupalli Kashyap is seeded fifth, while Prannoy Kumar has been seeded seventh out of a total of eight players. The unseeded Indians are Ajay Jayaram, Siril Verma, Kiran George, Shubhankar Dey and Chirag Sen.
Women's Singles
Saina Nehwal makes up the lone Indian in the seeding list where she has been seeded fourth. Thai shuttler Pornpawee Chochuwong is the first seed with Mia Blichfeldt coming in behind her. Saina will be up against Malaysian shuttler Kisona Selvaduray in the first round.
Men's Doubles
Arjun Ramachandran and Dhruv Kapila are seeded seventh in the men's doubles event. They too will be the lone India representatives in the tournament and will take on Great Britain's Matthew Clare and E van Leeuwen.
Women's Doubles
N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponappa have been given the last seed in the women's doubles event. Anto Agna and Ashan Roy are the other India competitors in the event.
Mixed Doubles
No Indian pair make up the seeding list in this event. However, there are two Indian teams competing in the first round. Pranaav Chopra and N Sikki Reddy will be in the first half of the allotted players while Dhruv Kapila and Ashwini Ponappa will be in the second half.
Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy
Fixture for 2021 Orleans Masters
Men's singles
Parupalli Kashyap - first-round bye
Kidambi Srikanth - first-round bye
Siril Verma - first-round bye
HS Prannoy - first-round bye
Chirag Sen - first-round bye
Ajay Jayaram vs Kalle Koljonen (Finland)
Subhankar Dey vs Ditlev Jaeger Holm (Denmark)
Kiran George vs Mark Caljouw (Netherlands)
Men's singles qualifying
B.M. Bharadwaj vs Mohamed Abderrahime Belarbi (Algeria)
Mithun Manjunath vs Youcef Sabri Medel (Algeria)
Alap Mishra vs Julien Carraggi (Belgium)
Rahul Chittaboina vs Shreyansh Jaiswal (India)
Women's singles
Saina Nehwal vs Kisona Selvaduray (Malaysia)
Women's singles qualifying
Aakarshi Kashya vs Yaelle Hoyaux (France)
Ira Sharma vs Lee Ying Ying (Malaysia)
Men's doubles
M.R. Arjun/Dhruv Kapila vs Matthew Clare/Ethan Van Leeuwen (England)
Men's doubles qualifying
Krishna Prasad /Vishnu Vardhan vs Kristian Høholdt /Marcus Rindshøj (Denmark)
Women's doubles
Anto Agna/Ashna Roy vs Yulfira Barkah/ Febby Valencia Dwijayanti Gani (Indonesia)
Ashwini Ponnappa/N Sikki Reddy vs Amalie Magelund/Freja Ravn (Denmark)
Mixed doubles
Pranaav Chopra/N Sikki Reddy vs Julien Maio/Lea Palermo (France)
Dhruv Kapila/Ashwini Ponnappa vs Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock (England)
LIVE stream, When and Where to watch 2021 Orleans Masters
The matches for the Orleans Masters will be broadcasted on the official YouTube channel of the tournament. Each match will have a broadcast based on the timing and all information relating to the matches will be updated on the information page of the website.
