Hello and welcome to Sportskeeda's coverage of the Japan Open Superseries 2017 as the main draw kicks off today on Wednesday and the biggest names in the sport get set to face off. In our first match of the day, we have Srikanth Kidambi taking on Tian Houwei in the opening round of the men's singles event and it promises to be a high-quality affair.
Srikanth, who will be playing his first tournament after his top-eight finish at the World Championships, will have to be his best if he has to get past Houwei, who has caused a lot of trouble to the Indian in the past. Srikanth is seeded eighth in the draw and Houwei is 10th, and it is the Chinese who enjoys a massive lead in the duo's head-to-head record.
In the seven times they have met, Srikanth has come out on top only once, which was in 2016 at the Badminton Asia Team Championships. The remaining six have seen Houwei come up trumps but an important fact is that the last time they met was in March 2016 and since then, Srikanth has seen his game improve to a great extent.
He will have to be at his best from the very start and cannot afford even the slightest lapse in concentration, with his next opponent likely to be the recently-crowned Korea Open champion Anthony Ginting and after that, the reigning world champion Victor Axelsen is likely to stand in the way.
The match will begin at around 6.45 AM IST. Stay tuned to this space for the latest updates!