The Asian Satellite Badminton Championship will begin at the Gachibowli indoor stadium in Hyderabad today.
With the quick and powerful China, Malaysia and Korea not taking part, India has to grapple with Thailand and Indonesia to aspire for laurels.
The tournament provides a perfect stage for former All England champion Pullela Gopichand to stage a comeback into the main circuit.
Gopichand, who was out of action in some of the major national and international events due to knee injury, looks fit and is raring to go.
Other contenders
National champion Chetan Anand, returned from Indonesia after a month-long training and looks fit too.
And the women's team will have in its ranks doubles champions Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurien besides Trupti Murugunde and Manjusha Kanwar.
Winner of the USD 10,000 tournament will get 180 points, runner up 150, semifinalist 120 and quarterfinalist 90 points.
About 100 shuttlers from Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangaldesh, Iran, Nepal and hosts India will be seen in action at the Gachibowli indoor stadium which has a hectic three-day schedule.
Topics mentioned in this article
Badminton
