All Eyes On Saina Nehwal As Indian Shuttlers Begin Rio Olympic Campaign

The ninth seed has Hungary's Sarosi Laura and Commonwealth Games champion Michelle Li of Canada in her group.

The road ahead will get tough as she is likely to face Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei and might square off against 2012 Olympic silver medalist Wang Yihan in the semifinals and Sindhu will have to be consistent to come back with a medal.

"I have beaten all of them in the past and it gives me confidence but then it gets tougher and tougher as we play them again because they know our strokes and we know there game, so it is all about changing the strategy on the court. That would be the key," said the three-time Macau Open winner.

In men's singles, Kidambi Srikanth will carry India's hopes as he battles in a highly- competitive field comprising Lee Chong Wei, Chen Long, Lin Dan and Jan O Jorgensen, among others.

The Guntur lad has already proved his mettle when he clinched the 2014 China Open and 2015 India Open to reach World No. 3 in June.

The 23-year-old has an easy draw, with Henri Hurskeinen of Sweden and Lino Munoz of Mexico in his group. Should he progress to the pre-quarterfinal stage, he is likely to face Jan O Jorgenson of Denmark.

"It has been a good two months for me. After a long time I could get a necessary break and I really could work on overall aspects of the game. It has been a dream to qualify for Olympics and I hope to make India proud," he said.

Among other Indians in the fray, 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist women's doubles pairs of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa and men's doubles combo of Manu Attri and Sumeth Reddy will be keen to shine in Rio.

The 2011 World Championship bronze medalists, Jwala and Ashwini, who finished at the group stage despite winning two matches out of three, will have a tough task, as they will face top seeds, Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo in the group stages, besides Dutch pair of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek and Thailand's Supajirakul Puttita and Sapsiree Taerattanachai.

Manu and Sumeeth too have a difficult draw with second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia, world number five Chai Biao and Hong Wei of China and Japanese combo of Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa in Group B.

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