In the absence of two-time winner Yuki Bhambri, Indian Davis Cuppers Ramkumar Ramanathan, ranked 121 and Prajnesh Gunneswaran, 142, will spearhead the Indian challenge in this year’s USD 50,000 KPIT-MSLTA Men’s ATP Challenger Tennis Tournament to be held at the Mahalunge Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune from November 17 to 24.
Kishore Patil, Co-Founder, KPIT (left) & Sunder Iyer, Secretary, MSLTA at a press conference to announce the USD 50,000 KPIT-MSLTA Men’s ATP Challenger Tennis Tournament.
“Yuki Bhambri (winner in 2015 and 2017) has sent a message that he’s withdrawing because he is injured. It’s a big loss for him,” said Sunder Iyer, secretary of the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association, which is organising the tournament, at a media conference here on Thursday.
Ramkumar, who lost to Bhambri in last year’s final, and Prajnesh, runner-up to Sadio Doumbia of France in 2016, would lead the home country’s challenge in this edition.
These two are the lone Indians in the direct list of entries (cut off at ATP rank 280) who will be joined by four wild cards (to be decided by MSLTA and All India Tennis Association), four qualifiers and two special exempts.
The qualifying rounds are to take place on the first two days followed by the men’s singles main draw of 32 starting on November 19.
Moldavian Radu Albot, the lone top 100 player in the list of direct entrants with an ATP ranking of 86, will be the top seed in the singles main draw.
“We started this event five years ago because we felt this was the best tournament for Indian players,” said Kishore Patil of KPIT, the title sponsors, who is also the Chairman of the Organising Committee. “Our initial contact was for three years but we have continued with the event because the Challenger level is the most important tournament for an emerging tennis player and this event has provided impetus to other organizers to come ahead and organize Challengers,” he added.