Reigning champion and local hero Lee Chong Wei steps out as the fourth seed for his home event at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium, and opens his title defence against Lee Cheol Ho of Korea before a probable quarter-final encounter with Olympic Champion Taufik Hidayat, seeded eighth.

Drawn in the lower section of the men’s singles draw, the 22-year-old will likely meet second seeded Dane Kenneth Jonassen the semi-finals, having been drawn in the lower half.  Jonassen faces a qualifier in his first match, but a tricky third round awaits him in the form of Thailand’s Olympic semi-finalist Boonsak Ponsana.

World number one and title favourite Lin Dan is due to meet his Athens conqueror Ronald Susilo in the second round, while third seed Peter Gade could face two Malaysians in a row in his early rounds – he’s drawn against Lee Tsuen Seng in the first round with Roslin Hashim awaiting him in the last 32.

Sixth seed Hafiz Hashim – winner of the Swiss and Thailand Open titles back in March – finds himself up against the unseeded World Champion Xia Xuanze in his first match of the tournament.

The women’s singles sees Xie Xingfang as favourite and eying up a probable final against second seeded compatriot and titleholder Zhang Ning.  The World and Olympic Champion Zhang is drawn to meet World Junior Champion Cheng Shao-Chieh of Chinese Taipei in her opening encounter, while Xie takes on Commonwealth Champion Li Li of Singapore.

France’s Pi Hongyan occupies the third seeded slot with the Netherlands’ Athens silver medallist Mia Audina her first round opponent – Audina leads 5-1 in the head-to-head record between the European pair, but it’s perhaps prophetic that Pi’s only win between them came at last year’s Malaysia Open.

Yao Jie of the Netherlands completes the top four players in the seeding list, while the hosts have just one player – Sutheaswari Mudukasan – in the main draw.

In men’s doubles, Denmark’s world number ones Jens Eriksen and Martin Lundgaard Hansen are the only names missing from the top ten pairs in the world ranking list.  In their absence, Indonesia’s Alven Yulianto and Luluk Hadiyanto start as tournament favourites, and will be eager to go one step further than at the 2004 edition, where they lost in the final to local heroes Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah.

The defending champions have been dealt a tough first round, though, against Athens bronze medallists Flandi Limpele-Eng Hian, and are also in the same half as the Indonesian top seeds and China’s in-form fourth seeds Fu Haifeng-Cai Yun.

World Champions and second seeds Lars Paaske-Jonas Rasmussen also have a tough first round against the plucky Thai pair Sudket Prapakamol-Patapol Ngernsrisuk, with third seeds Candra Wijaya-Sigit Budiarto awaiting them in the semi-finals.

Olympic Champions Yang Wei-Zhang Jiewen will be odds-on to retain their 2004 Malaysian women’s doubles title and start their 2005 campaign as top seeds against France’s Elodie Eymard-Weny Rahmawati – their second seeded teammates Wei Yili-Zhao Tingting take on Danes Lena Frier Kristiansen-Kamilla Rytter Juhl, while the third seeded World Champions Gao Ling-Huang Sui face Chien Yu Chin-Cheng Wen Hsing of Chinese Taipei.

In the mixed event, England’s Olympic silver medallists Nathan Robertson-Gail Emms  top the seeding list, and face another encounter with Olympic Champions and defending Malaysia Open titleholders Zhang Jun-Gao Ling in the final.