Five-time World champion Lin Dan will begin his quest for a sixth World title at the TOTAL BWF World Championships 2018 when he takes on Dutchman Mark Caljouw in the afternoon session tomorrow in Nanjing.

His younger compatriot Shi Yuqi, who won the Youth Olympic Games in 2014 in this city, will be the main attraction in the opening session when the action kicks off at 10 am at Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Sports Park. Shi faces Czech Republic’s Adam Mendrek.

Other matches scheduled for the opening session are Marvin Emil Seidel/Linda Efler (Germany) versus Ben Lane/Jessica Pugh (England); Sanyogita Ghorpade/Prajakta Sawant (India) versus Bengisu Ercetin/Nazlican Inci (Turkey); Daniel Nicolov/Ivan Rusev (Bulgaria) versus Manu Attri/Sumeeth Reddy (India) and Kate Foo Kune (Mauritius) versus Wendy Chen (Australia).

The World Championships in Nanjing will be held over the next seven days, with the semi-finals scheduled on Saturday 4 August and the finals the next day, Sunday 5 August.

Men’s Singles champion Viktor Axelsen (Denmark) will begin his title defence against Portugal’s Duarte Nuno Anjo in the opening session tomorrow.

Two-time World champion Chen Long will seek to take advantage of home conditions when he faces Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen Hao in the afternoon session.

Among the contests that are likely to be closely contested tomorrow are the Women’s Singles between Kirsty Gilmour (Scotland) and Gregoria Mariska Tunjung (Indonesia); the Men’s Singles between Wong Wing Ki (Hong Kong) and Ygor Coelho de Oliveira (Brazil); and the Men’s Doubles between Kittinupong Kedren/Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Wahyu Nayaka Arya Pankaryanira/Ade Yusuf (Indonesia).

The seeds who have got first-round byes begin their opening encounters on Tuesday. Mixed Doubles top seeds Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen start their campaign in the opening session at 10 am.

Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, World champion in 2013; India’s Saina Nehwal, silver medallist in 2015 and Asian champion Kento Momota (Japan) are scheduled to take the court on Tuesday.