Entering the tournament as the top seed in the women’s singles, rising shuttler P.V. Sindhu will spearhead the Indian challenge at the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold 2013, starting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
Sindhu, ranked 15th in the world, will face Chen Jiayuan of Singapore in the opening round of the tournament to be played till May 4. The other Indians in the women’s main draw are P.C. Thulasi, Arundhati Pantawane and Tanvi Lad, while Rituparna Das and G. Ruthvika Shivani will feature in the qualifying round.
In the men’s singles, India would be represented by H.S. Prannoy, R.M.V. Guru Sai Dutt, Sameer Verma, Abhimanyu Singh, Oscar Bansal and K. Srikanth.
Prannoy, who defeated former world No. 1 Taufik Hidayat in the second round of the India Open before going down to world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei in the quarterfinals, has got a walk over in the first round.
Guru Sai has been seeded 11th in the men’s singles of the $120,000 competition. He will take on Chao Huang of Singapore in the first round. In other first round matches, Sameer will meet Wei Jian Ai of Malaysia, while Abhimanyu will take on Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong.
Bansal and Srikanth will play Beryno Jiann Tze Wong and Sung Min Park respectively.
S. Sanjeeth and Jagadish Yadav will play in the men’s doubles main draw, while D. Guru Prasad and Vineeth Manuel will play in the qualifying round.
