Rio Olympic Gold medallist Carolina Marin and World No 1 Kento Momota will headline a star-studded field of international shuttlers when the India Open Super 500 event is held here from May 11 to 16, albeit behind closed doors.
The $400,000 tournament, one of the last few qualification events for the Tokyo Olympics.
Apart from Marin in women’s category, other Top-10 shuttlers include Akane Yamaguchi, 2019 world champion PV Sindhu, Korea’s An Se-Young and Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong.
Among the men, two-time world champion Momota, defending champion Viktor Axelson, Anders Antonsen and reigning All England Open champion Zii Jia Lee will be in the fray. Former World No 1 Srikanth Kidambi will lead the Indian charge along with B Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap.
India’s men’s doubles challenge will be spearheaded by World No 10 pairing of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, while Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy will aim for some valuable Olympic qualification points in the women’s doubles.
Ponnappa will also partner Satwik in the mixed doubles category which sees the Japanese pair of Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino leading the list of six Top-10 combinations in fray.