Mumbai: Defending men's singles champion R M V Gurusaidutt, country's second-highest world ranked player after London Olympics quarter-finalist Parupalli Kashyap, will be the top seed at the USD15,000 Tata Open India International Challenge badminton tournament, commencing here tomorrow.
Other Indians who will be taking part in the event are second seeded B Sai Praneeth, who is ranked 45, third seeded H S Prannoy (47) and fourth seeded Saurabh Varma (58).
The tournament, to be held at the Cricket Club of India and jointly organised by the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, has attracted a lot of foreign entries.
Anand Pawar, who was originally the seeded number two, withdrew due to a leg injury that he sustained at the China Open and aggravated it by playing in the subsequent Hong Kong Open.
"He's just started playing again," his father and former international, Uday Pawar told PTI.
Chetan Anand, Subhankar Dey and another seasoned shuttler Anup Sridhar complete the seedings list in the men's section.
Febby Angguni of Thailand, world no. 36, is top seeded in the women's singles.
She is followed by four Indian players -- former national champion Arundhati Pantawane (44th), Tanvi Lad (60th), current champion P C Thulasi (67th) and a former winner of this title, and Saili Rane.
The sixth seed is Lee Chia Hsin of Chinese Taipei, while India's Trupti Murgunde and Sayali Gokhale are no.7 and no. 8.
The winner will get 4,000 world ranking points and the runner up 3,400. There are events in men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles too.
"There has been a great response from around the world with 70-80 foreign entries (from nine nations). Indian players can get valuable ranking points and also gain experience by playing against up and coming players from other countries," said badminton ace Padukone at the media conference.
Main draw starts on Thursday after tomorrow's qualifiers, while the semifinals and finals will to be held on December 14 and 15, respectively, said tournament referee Chris Lawrence of USA.
