Rio Olympic silver medallists Lee Chong Wei and PV Sindhu have to battle hard to progress from the group stages of 2016 Dubai World Superseries Finals, starting 14 December.
The draws for five categories, including Men's and Women's singles of prestigious year-ending Superseries tournament, which will be played at the Hamdan Sports Complex, was announced on Monday by the Badminton World Federation.
All the categories will have two groups of four players each and the group stages will invovlve round robin matches which each player or pair playing three games. The top two players at the end of the group stages, which will be decided on the basis of number of games won, will move to the semi-final stages.
In the Men's singles, top seed Jan O Jorgensen has been drawn in Group A along with China's Tian Houwei, Germany's Marc Zwiebler and Taiwan's Hu Yun, who replaced Chen Long after the Chinese shutter declined a wildcard entry.
The 28-year-old Danish shuttler, after having won the China Open Superseries and finishing among the top-four at the Hong Kong Open, will be favourites to progress to the knockout round but will face stiff competition from Houwei, the 2016 All England Open runner-up.
Chong Wei, who entered as the last ranked shuttler for the tournament, will headline Group B, which also looks the tougher of the two groups. Second seed Son Wan Ho, Olympic bronze medallist Viktor Axelsen and Hong Kong Open 2016 champion.
In the Women's singles, top seed and Hong Kong Open winner Tai Tzu Ying has been drawn in Group A along with Thailand giant Ratchanok Intanon. South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun and China's rising star He Bingjiao are the other two shuttlers in the group.
Reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin and silver medallist PV Sindhu are in Group B along with in-form youngsters, third seed Sun Yu (China) and second seed Akane Yamaguchi (Japan).
Draws
Men's singles
| Group A | Group B |
| Jan O Jorgensen (Den) [1] | Son Wan Ho (Kor) [2] |
| Tian Houwei (Chn) [3/4] | Ka Long Angus (Hkg) [3/4] |
| Marc Zwiebler (Ger) [5/8] | Viktor Axelsen (Den) [5/8] |
| Hu Yun (Hkg) [5/8] | Lee Chong Wei (Mas) [5/8] |
Women's singles
| Group A | Group B |
| Tai Tzu Ying (Tpe) [1] | Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn) [2] |
| Sung Ji Hyun (Kor) [3/4] | Sun Yu (Chn) [3/4] |
| Ratchanok Intanon (Tha) [5/8] | Carolina Marin (Esp) [5/8] |
| He Bingjiao (Chn) [5/8] | PV Sindhu (Ind) [5/8] |
For Men's doubles, Women's doubles and mixed doubles draws, click here.
