But it is here in Mumbai, at Khar Gymkhana last year, that Baboor faced his last defeat in the country to rival, friend and fellow Swedish league player S Raman.

Since then, Baboor has upped his ranking by more than 30 places, beaten the world number one and has grabbed attention like no TT player has in recent times. But Baboor, by his own admission, has never been at his best in this city and adjusting from the cooler climes of Sweden (18 degrees centigrade) -- from where he recently returned -- to this cauldron might not be too easy. His completely shorn scalp will be a small cover from the rising humidity here. But his growing confidence should see him through in the Rs 1,80,000 tournament, to be inaugurate by former Test all-rounder Kapil Dev, at the MIG CricketClub.

Raman, with the National Games title behind him, will look to increase the gap between him, Baboor on one side and the rest of the competing fraternity. But the 30-year-old player from Chennai is a little short of practice, not the Utopian situation considering there is a Rs 1,40,000 tournament in Gandhidham next week.

Arup Basak will defend the crown he won three years ago at Assam, when the tournament was last held, and will have a bone to pick with Raman who beat him at the National Games at Imphal.

Poulumi Ghatak is the top seed among the women, No 3 seed Mouma Das the National Games champion and fourth seed Anindita Chakraborty the defending champion. Add to this second seed NR Indu and the draw becomes wide open.

The top four players in each of the men's and women's draw of 17 will not play till the quarter-finals. The other 13 have been put in four groups to play in a round-robin format. The first placed from each group will move in the last eight while the second placed will play for theninth and tenth spots.

A new rule introduced in this tournament, according to chief referee A M Lele, is that a player is entitled to take a minute's time-out during the match. But the provision, according to the International Table Tennis Federation norms, can be used just once each in the match by both players.

Seedings

Men: 1. Chetan Baboor (IOC), 2. S Raman (IOC), 3. Arup Basak (HP), 4. Arjun Dutta (IOC), 5. Subhajit Saha (IOC), 6. BS Thakur (Railways), 7. Nupur Santra (Railways), 8. Deepak Thukral (Punjab).

Women: 1. Poulumi Ghatak (Bengal), 2. NR Indu (IOC), 3. Mouma Das (Bengal), 4. Anindita Chakraborty (Railways), 5. Kasturi Chakraborty (Railways), 6. MS Mythili (BPCL), 7. Arul Selvi (TN), 8. Montu Ghosh (Railways).