Saina looks to end Super Series title draught in Denmark

As the season is drawing to a close, Saina Nehwal would look to end the Super Series title drought when the Denmark Open gets underway at Odense with the qualifiers on Tuesday.

World No.4 Saina had won three Superseries titles -- Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong -- besides winning the Commonwealth Games and India Open Grand Prix gold last year.

However, this year, Saina has won only a Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold title, besides finishing runner-up at Malaysia and Indonesia and the Indian will try to better her record when she open her campaign against Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand.

Fourth seed Saina has a 3-0 record against Porntip and is expected to cross the first hurdle without much fuss. However, her progress in the elite event would depend on how she faces the likes of Dane Tine Baun, Japan's Eriko Hirose and World No.1 Yihan Wang of China.

While Saina had a reasonable draw, P Kashyap's wretched luck with the men's singles draw continued as he has been pitted against World No. 1 Chong Wei Lee in his tournament opener.

Mumbai shuttler Ajay Jayaram, who reached the quarters in his debut World Championship this year, will take on Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia in the first round.

Commonwealth Games gold medallists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa will take on Shinta Mulia Sari and Lei Yao of Singapore in the Women's doubles competition.

Jwala will also pair with V Diju and take on eighth seeds Michael Fuchs and Birgit Michels of Germany in the mixed doubles event.

Aditi Mutatkar, Anand Pawar, RMV Gurusaidutt and men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas will play in the qualifying round on Tuesday.

Denmark Open is one of the five Super Series tournaments, which has been promoted as Premier event with a minimum prize fund between $ 350,000 and $ 400,000. The other Premier tournaments are All England Open, China Open, Indonesia Open and Korea Open.