Tokyo Olympian B Sai Praneeth will meet compatriot HS Prannoy in his opening match, while former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap will square off against a qualifier.
None of the other three quarters boast of such a strong star cast but there would be a few mouth-watering opening round clashes to look forward to.
Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth crashed out in the group stages after losing their respective second round matches in the BWF World Tour Finals, in Bangkok, on Thursday.
Prannoy reached the World Championships on previous two occassions.
With Srikanth's defeat, the Indian challenge in Hong Kong also came to an end.
After subdued earnings in the first half amid global headwinds, India Inc is taking a cautious approach on their capital expenditure (capex) for the second half of the financial year ending March 2025, according to management commentary. Minutes from the October monetary policy meeting show the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) optimism about private investments picking up.
However, it was curtains for former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap after he went down 10-21 19-21 to Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus.
Lakshya Sen and Saina Nehwal made impressive starts at the Indonesia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament, advancing to the second round of men's and women's singles respectively with contrasting victories in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament, one of badminton's last two Olympic qualifying events, was on Friday postponed due to a recent COVID-19 surge in the host country, dealing a severe blow to the Tokyo hopes of Indian stars like Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth.
It's turning out to be a double whammy season for Rajkummar Rao. Raj ended Bollywood's box office drought with Srikanth and followed it with Mr & Mrs Mahi.
Srikanth blew two game points in the second game to lose 7-21, 20-22 to Axelsen in the men's singles summit clash.
With the Lok Sabha elections going on, May is rather silent when it comes to new Bollywood theatre releases.
This period saw big stars of the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev fade into the sunset while it was witness to the birth of slew of young Indian cricketers that made their mark home and abroad.
Star Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth fought their hearts out before suffering close defeats in their respective group 'B' openers at the US$ 1.5 million HSBC BWF World Tour Finals, in Bangkok, on Wednesday.
Srikanth lost to Ireland's unseeded player Nguyen Nhat 11-21, 21-15, 12-21
'This was my only dream since I was a kid. I worked very hard for it and I am still working very hard to grow with every film.'
PV Sindhu produced another impressive show as she rallied to a three-game win over USA's Beiwen Zhang to advance to the women's singles quarterfinals
Bollywood seems to have ignored the month of September, with only two Hindi releases coming up in theatres. But cine-goers need not worry, as Hollywood and south cinema makes up for it.
On Wednesday, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, seeded eighth, scraped past the Denmark duo of Amalie Magelund and Freja Ravn 21-9, 17-21, 21-19 in the women's doubles.
Defending champions India sailed to the knockout stage of the Thomas Cup with a 5-0 rout of England.
Top shuttlers, including Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, are likely to leave for Malaysia and Singapore via Doha to participate in the last two Olympic qualifiers next month due to travel bans imposed by the two countries in the wake of unprecedented spike in COVID-19 cases in India.
Kidambi Srikanth entered the men's singles semi-finals at the Hong Kong Open after fifth seed Chen Long of China decided to quit the contest owing to an injury, in Hong Kong, on Friday.
Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu stormed into the women's singles second round at the Swiss Open with a straight-game win over Denmark's Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt in Basel.
Ahead of YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's planned visit to Lord Venkateswara Swamy temple at Tirumala Hills, the district police on Friday issued notice to several leaders and cadre of the party not to defy Section 30 of the Police Act which is in force.
The eighth seeded Indian, who had reached the final of India Open last week, blew a huge advantage in the opening game to eventually lose 18-21, 19-21.
Chess champion Koneru Humpy has been nominated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award
Look who watched Janhvi Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao's Mr & Mrs Mahi on Monday night.
Rejuvenated after a month-long break from a hectic BWF schedule, Sindhu and Srikanth prevailed over Japanese shuttlers Aya Ohori and Kenta Nishimoto in women's and men's singles respectively.
The actor is currently in judicial custody in the Renukaswamy murder case.
Sindhu progressed to the quarterfinals with an easy straight-game win over Japan's Aya Ohori
Lakshya Sen is only the third Indian men's badminton player to reach the quarter-finals at the Olympic Games.
Sindhu beat fourth seeded Blichfeldt 22-20, 21-10 in 43 minutes
Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu stayed on course for an elusive gold medal, while Laskhya Sen entered his maiden final at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday.
P V Sindhu ended her campaign with a consolation win at the BWF World Tour Finals but Kidambi Srikanth had a disappointing finish
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa notched up an upset win over the World No 8 and second-seeded Indonesian pair of Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in the opening round.
Ideally, a double digit opening would have set the film well. But the opening wasn't anywhere close to expectations.
From wannabe astronauts to visually disabled heroes, be sure to make some time for all the OTT action Sukanya Verma recommends this week.
Saina had pulled out of the opening round of All England Open Championships last week after suffering a thigh injury.
The star Indian pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will be the key attraction in the men's doubles category. However, they are set to face a stiff competition as the line-up includes the three-time world champion and world No. 2 Indonesian duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan alongside another Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto, who are currently ranked eighth in the world.
Srikanth showed great determination to outwit Korea's World No 25 Lee Dong Keun 12-21, 21-16, 21-18 in a second-round clash that clocked an hour and 13 minutes. The Indian had lost twice to the 27-year-old Korean in the past two meetings.
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