Sindhu to spearhead Indian challenge at Malaysia GP

Entering the tournament as the top seed in the women's singles, rising shuttler P V Sindhu will spearhead the Indian challenge at the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold 2013, starting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

Sindhu, ranked 15th in the world, will face Chen Jiayuan of Singapore in the opening round of the tournament to be played from April 30 to May 4.

Other Indians in the women's main draw are P C Thulasi, Arundhati Pantawane and Tanvi Lad, while Rituparna Das and G Ruthvika Shivani will feature in the qualifying round.

In the men's singles, India would be represented by H S Prannoy, R M V Gurusaidutt, Sameer Verma, Abhimanyu Singh, Oscar Bansal and K Srikanth.

Prannoy, who defeated former World No. 1 Taufik Hidayat in the second round of the just-concluded India Open before going down to current no. 1 ranked shuttler Lee Ching Wei in the quarterfinals, has got a walk over in the first round at Malaysia.

While Gurusaidutt, who lost in quarterfinals of the Indian Open, has been seeded eleventh in the men's singles of the $120,000 competition.

He will take on Chao Huang of Singapore in the first round.

In the other opening round matches, Sameer will meet Wei Jian Ai of Malaysia, while Abhimanyu would face Yan Kit Chan of Hong Kong.

Bansal and Srikanth will take on Beryno Jiann Tze Wong and Sung Min Park, respectively.

The combination of S Sanjeeth and Jagadish Yadav will play in the men's doubles main draw, while D Guru Prasad and Vineeth Manuel will play in the qualifying round.