Both the men's and women's tournaments have attracted strong fields for the curtain raiser which is taking place at Axiata Arena.

Japan's back-to-back and reigning world champion Kento Momota is the dominant force in the men's game and takes his place as top seed.

The 25-year-old world number one ended last year by winning the World Tour Finals in Guangzhou and is a massive home hope for gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

He will begin the tournament with a first round clash against India's Parupalli Kashyap.

Chinese Taipei's second seed Chou Tien-chen opens against Indian Srikanth Kidambi while Denmark's third seed Anders Antonsen, last year's World Championship runner-up, starts by taking on Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia.

China's Rio 2016 Olympic champion Chen Long is seeded fourth and has an interesting opening clash against South Korea's Son Wan-ho.

Son is unseeded but is the defending Malaysia Masters champion, having beaten Chen in the 2019 final.

Denmark's fifth seed Viktor Axelsen, the 2017 world champion, won the Malaysia Masters in 2018 and faces Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto in his first match.

The tournament is a Super 500 competition on the World Tour, the third highest level after Super 1000 and Super 750.

Thailand's fifth seed Ratchanok Intanon is bidding to win the women's event for the third straight year.

Intanon won the world title in 2013 and faces a first round clash with Indonesian Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.

Chinese Taipei's Asian Games champion Tai Tzu-ying starts as top seed and has been handed a clash with Chinese qualifier Zhang Yiman.

China's second seed Chen Yufei beat Tai to win the World Tour Finals in Guangzhou and will begin against Denmark's Line Kjærsfeldt, while Japan's third seed and 2017 world champion Nozomi Okuhara, the 2015 winner, will take on a qualifier.

An interesting clash pits Spain's reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin against Japan's fourth seed Akane Yamaguchi.

Marin is yet to climb back into the seeded positions after missing eight months of last year with a knee injury, but demonstrated her return to the top of the sport by winning the China Open in September.

India's reigning world champion PV Sindhu, who has won the Malaysia Masters twice, starts as sixth seed and is taking on Russia's Evgeniya Kosetskaya.

The tournament is running until the finals on Sunday (January 12).

Men's and women's doubles will begin the action tomorrow.