Saina, Srikanth missed out on qualifying for Tokyo Olympics — Know Why?

While both Srikanth and Saina were the closest to the qualifying mark, a total of four shuttlers will represent the country at the Tokyo Olympics — Pv Sindhu in women's singles, B Sai Praneeth in men's singles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in men's doubles.

In the Race to Tokyo qualifying system, players had to be ranked inside the top 16 of the singles rankings in the standings and the top eight of the doubles rankings to achieve the qualification. Saina is ranked 22nd while Srikanth is 20th. Ashwini and Sikki are ranked 26th. Sindhu, who won gold at the 2019 World Championships, is ranked seventh while Praneeth is 13th.

Their chances of making it to the Olympics were significantly depleted by the postponement of a number of tournaments that served as qualifiers, most notably the Indian Open, the Malaysian Open, and the Singapore Open, in March and April.

The three tournaments were the last in the qualification calendar and were all deferred amid a deadly second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India.

Here, we look at how both Srikanth and Nehwal have fared in the Tokyo Olympics qualifiers and how the postponement of the Indian Open affects the veteran duo.

Why Saina couldn't make the cut for Tokyo Olympics?

Saina Nehwal was the first female superstar of Indian badminton who won the bronze medal at the Olympics in 2012. However, with each passing day, the former world no. 1 seemed to be languishing out of form enduring a torrid run in the international circuit. The first real female badminton superstar from India, Saina Nehwal has been enduring a torrid run in the international circuit for quite a few years.

She began her Race to Tokyo campaign with the New Zealand Open in 2019 making an exit in the opening round. A series of similar first-round exits further depleted her chances to qualify. Her best performance since then has been the semifinal finish at the recently concluded Orleans Masters. Saina played a total of 17 tournaments during the Tokyo Olympics qualification cycle which started in April 2019 and earned a total of 57367.4134 points. Considering the 10 best results that contribute to Race to Tokyo Rankings she has 43037 points. The 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist played a total of 28 matches during this time and won just 11 of those with a poor 39.2% win percentage. Here's a look at her performances

Similar to Saina, Kidambi also holds the record of being the world's no. 1 badminton player. However, his flight on top barely lasted for a week. The 28-year-old played his first Olympic qualifying tournament, the Indonesian Open in July 2019, where he crashed out in the round of 16.

He failed to reach the finals of any tournaments since then, which could have propelled his rankings to win some crucial points. Similar to Saina, Kidambi competed in a total of 17 tournaments amassing 59829.429 points. During the course of the qualification period, Srikanth has a won just 50% of his games. Considering the 10 best results that contribute to Race to Tokyo Rankings he has 4,2989 points. Having played his first Olympic qualification tournament in July 2019 to the recently concluded Orleans Masters in March 2021, the former world number 1 has tasted wins in just 17 of the 34 matches he played.