With a few more Indians set to enter the main draw after the qualifying matches, the focus of the Indian Open Super Series here at Siri Fort will shift towards how many of them are likely to qualify for the London Olympics. Saina, India’s best bet, has already qualified for the Olympics, but there are players like Ajay Jairam and P Kashyap in men’s singles, V Diju and Jwala Gutta in the mixed doubles and Jwala again with Ashwini Ponnappa in the ladies doubles who are on the cusp of qualifying for the London event. This could well be the largest and strongest ever badminton squad from the country in any Olympics since the sport made its debut at the 1992 Barcelona Games.u00a0Saina was close to sealing a semi-final spot in the last edition at Beijing in 2008, but lost a very close match (to Indonesia’s Maria Kristin Yulianti) — a loss that still haunts her.

Medal hopes: Jwala Gutta (right) Ashwini Ponnappa after winning gold on October 14, 2010. Pic/Subhash Barolia