Kuala Lumpur, May 10: The 21st edition of the Thomas Cup fittingly begins in the 21st century at the Stadium Putra, here tomorrow.

Malaysia, who were the first Thomas Cup champions in the last millennium in Preston, England in 1949 are playing host and hope that they will be the first champions in the new millennium as well.

But Malaysia's route this time will not be the same as they had 51 years ago in Preston.

Team's like Indonesia, China and South Korea and European challenger Denmark have emerged as their main threat with little to choose between them.

In this edition, Indonesia and China are the hot favourites with Denmark, South Korea and Malaysia ranked as title contenders.

The Thomas Cup has remained on Asian soil since its inception in 1948 - the honours changing hands between Malaysia, Indonesia and China.

Malaysia have made 12 Cup final appearance winning five times and losing on seven occasions.

"We hope to be in the final for the 13th time and come out as the lucky winner. Some say 13 is unlucky but I think our shuttlers will prove this wrong," said Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Datuk Dr Abdullah Fadzil Che Wan.

Denmark, the only team capable of giving Europe their first Thomas Cup title, have reached the finals six times, losing in all six occasions.

On arriving in Malaysia five days ago, world No. 1 Peter Gade-Christensen said Denmark are capable of beating any teams in the competition here.

China made a late entry to the Thomas and Uber Cups - in 1982 and went on to win that year.

Two years later they lost to Indonesia in the final but went on to score a hattrick of wins from 1986-1990.

Malaysia, Denmark and Indonesia have balanced teams while South Korea do not have a strong singles line-up but have two strong pairs.

Likewise, China, this time around have five strong singles players in All England champion Xia Xuanze, Japan Open winner Ji Xinpeng, Malaysian Open champion Luo Yigang, World Grand Prix winner Sun Jun and Chen Hong.

But the Chinese are quite weak in the doubles. China is hoping for a sweep in the three singles while Korea is hoping for a sweep in the doubles and steal a point from the singles to help them win.

The 21st edition of the Thomas Cup will be played in a state of the art badminton hall - the newly built Putra Stadium which one of the venue for the 16th Commonwealth Games. It has a seating capacity of 17,000.