Birmingham: The All England Open Badminton Championship will begin in Birmingham from Tuesday. In the history of 115 years, only two Indian players have managed to win the England Open. Prakash Padukone became the first Indian to win the championship in 1980, after which Pullela Gopichand repeated Prakash's success in 2001. After this, no Indian has failed to win the title in the last 22 years. This time a total of 15 Indians will present their claim in the All England Championship. HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth will represent India in men's singles. 10 players from India will also participate in doubles. Lakshya Sen will present the strongest contender in men's singles. He is the first Indian player after Gopichand to reach the final of this tournament. PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will be in contention in the women's singles. Saina Nehwal is the only Indian woman player to play the final of England Open. She reached the finals in 2015. At the same time, PV Sindhu can easily win against China's Yang Ziman in the opening round.
