Saina Nehwal faces her nemesis Tai Tzu Ying in the first round while P V Sindhu has got an easy opener against Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong after the Indian shuttlers were handed a tricky draw at the $1000,000 All England Championship next month.
World No 11 Saina, who had reached the finals at the 2015 All England Championship and lost to the Taiwanese World No 1 Tai Tzu at the Indonesia Open last month, will get a chance to avenge her loss and better her dismal head-to-head record against the defending champion.
Sindhu is expected to cross the first hurdle without much of a problem and in that case, she may get a chance to settle scores with American Beiwen Zhang Zhang in a likely second round clash. Zhang had defeated Sindhu at the India Open Final.
World No 3 Kidambi Srikanth, also seeded third, had a rampaging run last season when he won four titles and he would face Frenchman Brice leverdez in the opening round of the BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament slated for March 14-18.
However, B Sai Praneeth and HS Prannoy will face tougher opponents in the opening round in men's singles.
Singapore Open champion Praneeth will square off against former world number one Korean Son Wan Ho, while World No. 11 Prannoy, who is still recovering from the foot infection that saw him struggle at the India Open, will clash with eighth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.