All eyes will be on local lad and world No. 15 Saurav Ghosal when a bunch of top-25 players vie for top honours in the Kolkata International JSW Indian Squash Circuit beginning here on Thursday.
The four-day meet features world number 12 Marwan Elshorbagy of Egypt, No. 17 Stephen Coppinger from South Africa, No. 22 Chris Simpson of England besides the Asian Games gold medal winning Indian team also featuring Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu, Kush Kumar and Mahesh Mangaonkar.
Columbia-based promising Indian Ramit Tandon was given a wild card entry and the 23-year-old will face fourth seed Simpson of England in his opening round.
Ghosal is seeded third and will open his campaign against against qualifier Nathan Lake of England in the 16 player's main draw, while top seed Elshorbagy will face Sanjay Singh Chal of Malaysia in the opening round.
"It's my home club and so, I would certainly like to win this event. That's the aim... But I have to take one match at a time. Hopefully, I will be victorious on Sunday.
"It's quite a strong field out here... But a successful outing will boost my confidence in the US Open next month, because that's going to be an even tougher field," Ghosal said.
Taking control over Edmon Lopez Moller of Spain from the second game, Lake won 12-10, 11-6, 11-5 in 46 minutes, while Sanjay Singh Chal defeated Ravi Dixit 11-5, 11-4, 10-12, 11-2 in 38 minutes to make the main draw.
Seedings: 1 Marwan Elshorbagy (Egypt), 2 Stephen Coppinger (South Africa), 3 Saurav Ghosal, 4 Chris Simpson (England), 5 Zahed Mohamed (Egypt), 6 Olli Tuominen (Finland), 7 Mahesh Mangaonkar, 8 Greg Lobban (Scotland).