World No 3 PV Sindhu has been drawn in Group A for the year-ending Dubai Superseries final starting December 13. The other players in her group are world No 2 Akane Yamaguchi and 15th ranked Sayako Sato (both from Japan) and world No 9 He Bingjiao of China.

K Srikanth, currently ranked world No 4, has been drawn in Group B in the men’s singles section, along with world champion and world No 1 Viktor Axelsen. The other two players in that group are Taiwan’s Chou Tien Chen and China’s Shi Yuqi.

The prestigious season-ending event features the top 8 players from each category based on their performance in the Superseries events in the calendar year. No doubles pair from India made the cut, while HS Prannoy and Saina Nehwal just missed the cut. The tournament starts with a round-robin format, after which the top two from each group advance to the semi-final.

Sindhu has managed to avoid the tournament favourite Tai Tzu Ying (world No 1) and in-form Ratchanok Intanon, making her path to semi-finals relatively straight forward. Carolina Marin and Nozomi Okuhara withdrew from the event.

Sindhu will begin her campaign against He Bingjiao while Srikanth begins his campaign against world No 1 Axelsen in Group B.