Gopichand meets Anderson in first round

The other Indians to get a direct entry in the men's singles main draw are Chetan Anand and Abhinn Shyam Gupta.

Chetan will face top seed Chen Hong of China while Abhinn will meet Yogendran Khrishnan of Malyasia in the first round.

Another Indian, Sachin Ratti will play in the qualifiers, where he has a first round bye.

In the men's doubles, V Diju and Thomas Sanave are in the main draw and will face the Malaysian pair of Mohd Fairuzizuan B Tazari and Lin Woon Fui.

Vijaydeep Singh and Markose Bristow are in the doubles qualifiers and have a first round bye.

In the women's singles, B R Meenakshi has got the lone direct entry into the main draw and will face Yuli Marfuah of Indonesia in the first round.

Manjusha Kanwar and PVV Lakshmi are in the singles qualifiers, where Lakshmi has got first round bye.

In the women's doubles, B R Meenakshi and Manjusha Kanwar have a direct entry and will face the Malaysian pair of Fong Chen Yen and Lee Yin Yin in the first round.

In mixed doubles, V Diju and Manjusha Kanwar will face Albertus Susanto Njoto and Wai Chee Louisa Koon from Hong Kong. Chetan Anand and PVV Lakshmi will face the German pair of Jan Junker and Birgit Overzier while Thomas Sanave and B R Meenakshi will face the Danish pair of Jonas Rasmussen and Jane Bramsen in the first round.

The Malaysian Open will kick start the second half of the 2001 Grand Prix season and will be played under the new 5 x 7 scoring system.

China's Chen Hong, bronze medallist at the Seville world meet, tops the men's singles seedings, followed in second position by world number three Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. World champion Hendrawan is the third seed and will run out against Malaysia's Saman Ismail in the first round.

The host nation have four seeded players - Roslin Hashim, Ong Ewe Hock, Lee Tsuen Seng and Wong Choong Hann - but the pressure will be on Hashim to perform after his early exit from the world championships.

Olympic champion Ji Xinpeng, still struggling to find form, faces Shoji Sato in his first match.

In the women's singles, a rematch of the World championships final could be on the cards. Seville silver medallist Zhou Mi is the top seed while World champion (and former World junior champion) Gong Ruina in second at the opposite end of the draw.

World champions Tony Gunawan and Halim Haryanto are firm favourites for the men's doubles title, to add to their Seville and All England victories in 2001, and their Malaysia Open win back in 1998. They'll take on a lucky qualifier in the first round, while second seeds Zhang Wei and Zhang Jun face Nathan Robertson and Anthony Clark of England.