Top Indian singles players confirm for Pune Challenger; upcoming Goveas gets wild card

THE SECOND EDITION of the KPIT ATP Challenger tournament, organized by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) will get underway from October 24th 2015 at the Balewadi tennis complex in Pune. 

This professional $50000 ATP challenger event will feature top Indian and Davis Cup players in Yuki Bhambri (99), Saketh Myneni (166), Somdev Devvarman (181), Ramkumar Ramnathan (248) and Sanam Singh (279). Junior Wimbledon doubles champion (2015), Sumit Nagal too will make his presence felt. 

Besides the Indian professionals, David cuppers, including James Ward (159) (member of the current British team for 2015 David Cup finals), Yanick Mertens (Belgium), former world no.65 Evegeny Donskoy (Russia) and last year’s runner-up, Spaniard, Adrian Menendez-Maceiras will bring the foreign flavor to the event.  

As witnessed in the past, these ATP challenger tournaments have been extremely beneficial to the Indian players trying to break into the ATP world tour. 

“It will be a great opportunity for Indian players to pick up valuable points. A title here can help players like Yuki and Somdev to start the New Year on high. Yuki, who has broken into the top-100 in world tennis will try and cement his place."  a confident Bharat Oza, Hon Secretary of the All India Tennis association said.

The current world no.99, Bhambri, who recently broke into the top-100 for the first time is very bullish and excited about the prospect of Indian players performing in front of their home fans and believes it will immensely help them in myriad ways. 

“We have 4 players in the top-200 and one of the reasons is the successful conduct of Challengers in India. It makes a big difference to play at home, as the atmosphere, the support we get from everyone is important. I will attribute a lot of Indian players’ success to the challengers we are having at home, said Bhambri in a statement. 

The organizing committee strongly believes that such tournaments should be seen as a launching pad to promote the upcoming talent in the state/country and have given a wildcard entry in the main draw to the current No.2 player (under-18) and junior national runner-up, Aryan Goveas (Maharashtra), while a qualifying draw wildcard has been handed over to Siddhant Banthia (Maharashtra). 

Prize money (in INR) & ATP points break-up

The qualifying rounds will be played on 24th and 25th, while the main draw event will commence from Monday, October 26th.