JOIN USBesides, Somdev-Sanam, the up and coming Indian pair of Vishnu Vardhan and Divij Sharan too have been awarded a wild card.
Somdev, who is ranked 211 in doubles in the world, and Sanam (No 506) had a good run in
India’s only ATP event the previous year, reaching the the semifinals. Vishnu (No 295) and Divij (No 309) too tasted some success in the year, winning three ITF titles and reaching two finals in the ATP Challenger events. Vishnu also secured the silver in the Asian Games mixed doubles event with Sania Mirza.
The tournament will also witness coming together of Indian Express Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi after a gap of nine years.
Meanwhile, the organisers announced a revised player field for the Jan3-9 meet. Haider-Maurer Andreas of Austria, ranked 118 on ATP Tour, Dancevic Frank (Canada, No 119) and Robert Stephane (France, No 121) have been added to the field after the withdrawal of Paul Henri Mathieu (France) Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) and Olivier Rochus (Belgium). The latest edition features 15 players in the top 100 in the ATP rankings.