Olympic medallists Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu will look to become only the third Indian to lay hands on the prestigious All England trophy when they lead the home challenge at the Super Series Premier tournament, starting with the qualifiers here on Tuesday.
Ever since Pullela Gopichand emulated Prakash Padukone's 1980 feat in 2001, no Indian has ever laid claim to the crown with Saina being the country's only shuttler to come close to achieving that rare feat when she reached the finals at 2015 before losing to Olympic champion Carolina Marin.
Back to full fitness after putting in the hard yards following a complete recovery from the knee injury, which had broken her Rio Olympics dream, Saina is now aiming to regain her position in world badminton and will be eager to dish out a powerpacked performance at the Barclaycard Arena.
In the form of her life, sixth seed Sindhu will face Denmark's Mette Poulsen in the opening round and is likely to meet world No 1 and top seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei at the quarterfinals if she doesn't suffer any hiccups.
In men's singles, Rio Olympics quarterfinalist K Srikanth will look to put his best foot forward after a pre-quarterfinal finish at the German Open last week.