Bengaluru: Prajwal Dev, who was recently named in India's Davis Cup squad as a reserve, was on Thursday handed a wild card entry into the singles main draw of the Bengaluru Open, an ATP Challenger event starting February 12.
The 27-year had competed in Bengaluru Open last year also but had fallen in the first round.
However he is coming into the fresh season on the back of a decent show in 2023 in which he ended a runner-up at the ITF 15k event in Thailand and also reached the semi-finals in three other tournaments.
"I would like to thank KSLTA for the wonderful opportunity to play in the main draw. I'm privileged to receive the wild card and I'm looking forward to the tournament. Hopefully, I can do well. I'm coming off a good week in Chennai and hopefully I continue with that," said Prajwal, currently ranked 611 in ATP rankings.
"Expectation is there and I'm hopeful I will live up to that," he said.
The KSLTA will soon announce more main draw wild cards for the tournament which will conclude on February 18.
"Prajwal has the potential to break into top-500 soon and we want to give him an opportunity to achieve the feat at the earliest. He's a very talented player, and support at right time is what a player needs. Our endeavour is to support local talent," said Tournament Director Sunil Yajaman.
"We're delighted to give this opportunity to Prajwal. Hopefully he'll make full use of it," Yajaman further added.
Published 08 February 2024, 13:39 IST