World No 48 Sourabh Verma and the 51st-ranked Rituparna Das have been named the top seeds at the Tata Open India International Challenge, which begins in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The tournament will also feature junior world No 3 Lakshya Sen, who was recently crowned champion of the India International Series in Hyderabad and reached the semi-finals of the senior national championship in Nagpur.
Also taking part are the men’s doubles national champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, along with the losing finalists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who reached the quarter-finals of two Superseries tournaments this year. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy, who became the first Indian mixed doubles pair to reach a Superseries semi-final earlier this year, are the top seeds in their category.
While there will be 167 Indian players participating in the five-day-long tournament, there will also be representation from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, USA, and New Zealand.
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