In a jam-packed international badminton calendar, we are already at the last of the Super 1000 events. (It's September in 2023, #IDontBelieveIt.) China Open has long been one of the most anticipated events on the tour, and it's making a return to the calendar this year after a 3-year hiatus. But it is a little oddly placed this year, coming just after a memorable BWF World Championships in Copenhagen and just before the postponed Asian Games, a high quality quadrennial event where the badminton field is usually of a very high level.

Indeed, the withdrawals from the singles field is rather significant. Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Srikanth Kidambi, Michelle Li, Ratchanok Intanon and PV Sindhu are some big names who will be missing in action this week in Changzhou.

But, in case you were feeling a little bit saturated with international badminton and weren't quite up for this tournament, a quick look at the opening round fixtures lined up might just change how you feel.

(Side note: I still don't think badminton helps itself with the draw throwing up such high quality matches in the opening round of a big event, as it somewhat affects the rest of the tournament, but that is for another day perhaps.)

Without going into great detail, we are in for some potential badminton awesomeness nice and early.

Notable men's singles round of 32 clashes:

1. Current & former Worlds medallists: Anders Antonsen vs Lakshya Sen

2. Current Worlds medallist & CWG 2022 medallist: HS Prannoy vs Ng Tze Yong. (Also a clash between two men who have defeated Viktor Axelsen at a Major event this season... Prannoy at Worlds and Ng at All England.)

3. Former All England champ & current Worlds runner-up: Lee Zii Jia vs Kodai Naraoka

4. Current All England champ & former Worlds medallist: Li Shi Feng vs Chou Tien Chen

Notable women's singles round of 32 clashes:

1. Rematch of Japan 2023 round of 16 where Beiwen Zhang defeated reigning Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei

Notable men's doubles round of 32 clashes:

1. World No 1 vs Copenhagen Worlds silver medallists: Alfian/Ardianto vs Astrup/Rasmussen

2. Two super exciting pairs in Liang/Wang vs Carnando/Marthin

3. The legendary former world champions Ahsan/Setiawan vs the newly crowned world champions Kang/Seo (Seo Seung Jae is, of course, playing both men's and mixed doubles.)

4. Former All England champs Fikri/Maulana vs Asian champions and world No 2 Satwik/Chirag. It's a rematch of the Thailand Open round of 16 tie where the Indonesians defeated the Indians for the first time in four meetings.

Notable women's doubles round of 32 clashes:

1. Reigning (and four-time) World Champions Chen/Jia vs India No 1 Gayatri/Treesa. (Granted it's not on the lines of the previously mentioned clashes, but for the Indians, a second straight tournament where they are running into Chen/Jia, that means a significant chance for the youngsters to show they are learning and improving)

With the Asian Games not far away now, it remains to be seen how hard some of the top players go at it this week in Changzhou, but if you are a fan of high-quality badminton, there are some mouthwatering contests coming your way from the word go on Tuesday.

(Schedule, draws etc here)