Former champions PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will look to shrug off their erratic form and ensure an Indian sweep at the USD 350,000 India

With Saina Nehwal pulling out of the country’s blue-riband tournament after failing to recover from acute gastroenteritis, the onus will be on Sindhu and Srikanth to keep the tricolour flying at the business end of the tournament starting Tuesday.

Olympic silver-medallist Sindhu, who claimed the World Tour Finals in December last year, will be the firm favourite to secure the women’s title after receiving the top billing following the pullout of Chinese top seed and reigning All England champion Chen Yufei due to medical reasons.

The Indian ace, who won silver medals at the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the World Championship in 2018, will draw inspiration from her performance in the last two editions where she had reached the finals and claimed the title in 2017.

Sindhu will open against compatriot Mugdha Agrey and is expected to face fast-rising Danish Mia Blichfeldt, seeded eighth, in the quarterfinals. A win is likely to pit her against Chinese third seed He Bingjiao.

Youngsters Vrushali Gummadi and Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka will also be in the fray in women’s singles at the World Tour Super 500 event.The tournament will hold a lot of prominence for third seed Srikanth, who has endured a title drought for the last 17 months.

The 26-year-old from Guntur, who clinched the title in 2015, will begin his campaign against a familiar foe, Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent, and might come across fellow Indians Sameer Verma or B Sai Praneeth later as both are in the same half of the draw.

Praneeth, who had clinched the 2017 Singapore Open for his first maiden Super Series title, is coming into the tournament after securing a final spot at the Swiss Open and he will look to extend his good run.

Prannoy, troubled by a gastro-oesophagal reflux disease last season, is coming to the event after competing at the Asia Mixed Team championship and will take on Thailand’s eighth seed Kantaphon Wangcharoen.

SaarLorLux Open champion Subhankar, who had stunned Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie of Indonesia on way to a quarterfinal finish at the Swiss Open, will open against fourth seed Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto.

Ajay and Kashyap, two careers marred by injuries, will look to continue their comeback with first-round matches against Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei and Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu respectively.

In doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty withdrew with the former still recovering from a shoulder injury. Sixth seeds Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will lead the challenge in men’s doubles, which also features Arjun MR and Ramchandran Shlok.

Arun George and Sanyam Shukla will also be a pair to look out for after they stunned World No. 14 pair of Liao Min Chun and Ching Heng last week at Hong Kong.