Indians look to seize the opportunity

Indian players will be looking to seize the opportunity to gain some ranking points when the $15,000 ITF Futures tournament begins at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association courts on Monday.

The likes of Prajnesh Gunneswaran (ATP ranking 342), Sriram Balaji (363) and Vishnu Vardhan (439) will be seen in action in the tournament. Prajnesh had won the last leg of the series in Bhilai, defeating Balaji and the two have been seeded one and two respectively here.

A clutch of foreign talent will also be on display, including Hongkit Wong (906) from Hong Kong, Sami Reinwein (574) and Haenle Pirmin (942) from Germany and Jui Chen Hung (919) from Chinese Taipei.

The other leading Indians competing here are Vijay Sunder Prashanth (557) and Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (876).

Prajnesh opens his campaign against Pirmin, while Vishnu, seeded third, takes on compatriot Jayesh Pungliya. Balaji will be up against Ranjeet, a former National champion. In doubles, the pair of Vishnu and Balaji have been riding high and look favourites for the title.  In the singles final qualifying rounds, Karnataka’s B R Nikshep and S D Prajwal went down fighting to their rivals.

The results (final qualifying round): Kunal Anand bt S D Prajwal Dev 6-3, 2-6, 6-4; S Abhinav Sanjeev bt Anirudh Chandrashekar 6-4, 6-2; Jatin Dahiya bt Shabaaaz Khan 7-6 (2), 6-3; Paramveer Singh Bajwa bt Anurag Nenwani 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-1; Dhakshineshwar Suresh bt P Vignesh 6-4, 7-6 (5); Siddarth Vishwakarma bt B R Nikshep 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5; Tejas Chaukulkar bt Ansu Bhuvan 6-4, 6-0; Shivadeep Kosaraju bt Taha Kapadia 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4).