Earning his place: Former World No. 25 Pospisil entered the principle draw after going by way of the qualifying occasion.
| Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan
Sumit Nagal has been shining brilliant within the season up to now. He has introduced the give attention to the singles court docket thanks first to his exploits on the Australian Open, and now persistently within the Challengers at dwelling in Chennai and Bengaluru.
Otherwise, it was left to Rohan Bopanna and the opposite doubles stars to maintain the hearth alive in Indian tennis.
Even although he misplaced within the semifinals in Bengaluru, after having received the title in Chennai and damaged into the top-100 of the ATP rating for the primary time in his profession, the 26-year-old Sumit will probably be robust to beat within the third Challenger this week in Pune.
The $133,250 Maha Open Challenger has historically been a cheerful looking floor for the Indian gamers, as match director Sunder Iyer identified.
Yuki Bhambri received the singles title twice. Prajnesh Gunneswaran made it to the ultimate twice, and Ramkumar Ramanathan misplaced to Yuki in three units in 2017.
Five Indian pairs have bagged the doubles titles from 2014. Purav Raja, Ramkumar and Vijay Sundar Prashanth did it twice with completely different companions. Saketh Myneni, Divij Sharan, Sanam Singh, and Anirudh Chandrasekar have all received the doubles crown.
Interestingly, Saketh and Ramkumar have received the doubles titles within the final two Challengers. They have their first spherical towards second seeds Piotr Matuszewski and Matthew Romios this time.
While the singles discipline has solely Sumit, S. Mukund, Ramkumar and Niki Poonacha for Indian presence, there are 11 Indian gamers within the doubles draw, which ought to guarantee a whole lot of leisure for the followers on the dusty stadium.
Arjun Kadhe and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan open towards Rithvik Bollipalli and Niki Poonacha. Sriram Balaji and Andre Begemann of Germany should be desirous to set the file straight after having misplaced early within the final two tournaments.
In the qualifying occasion, the younger Arnav Paparkar and Siddhant Banthia gave account of their sport towards Felix Gill of Britain and prime seed Benjamin Bonzi of France respectively. The incontrovertible fact that Vasek Pospisil of Canada, the previous World No.4 in doubles and No. 25 in singles needed to endure the qualifying occasion ought to give a touch concerning the high-quality discipline.
The seedings: 1. Sumit Nagal, 2. Duje Ajdukovic (Cro), 3. Adam Walton (Aus), 4. Valentin Vacherot (Mon), 5. Dalibor Svrcina (Cze), 6. Oliver Crawford (GBR), 7. Dane Sweeny (Aus), 8. Federico Gaio (Ita).
