Bengaluru Open | Sumit Nagal draws Prajwal Dev in opening round

Bengaluru: India's top-ranked singles player Sumit Nagal (world No. 275) will square off with Karnataka's wildcard entrant Prajwal Dev (No. 629) in the opening round of the Bengaluru Open following the main event's draw ceremony that took place at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium on Saturday. 

All six Indian players — including Aryan Shah, Karan Singh, Manas Dhamne and Dhakshineswar Suresh — avoided seeded names led by World No. 96 and 2021 French Open semifinalist Pedro Martinez, who will face a qualifier in the opening round, starting on Monday. 

Furthermore, six Indians will compete among 24 qualifiers for six spots in the main draw with the likes of experienced Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sidharth Rawat, Manish Sureshkumar among others, domestic names in the fray for the newly-upgraded ATP Challenger 125 event for its special 10th edition.

In the doubles draw, several Indian pairs will be competing for top honours, including top seeds N Sriram Balaji and Austria's Neil Oberleitner who will face Ukrainian-Finnish pair of Vladyslav Orlov and Eero Vasa in the opening round. 

Experienced Saketh Myneni will team up with Adil Kalyanpur as a wildcard pair and will face Nagal and Harris Lloyd in the opening round. In total, 13 Indians are competing in the doubles draw, including Karnataka's Niki Poonacha among several of the names competing in the singles draw. 

Nagal best bet

With the likes of Martinez, France's second seed Harold Mayot (No. 293), UK's third seed Jay Clarke (413) and South Africa's fourth seed Lloyd Harris in fray in the singles draw, home fans would expect Sumit Nagal to make a deep run in the tournament and revive memories of his 2017 triumph while no Indians made it beyond the opening round last year.

However, Nagal's recent form remains a worry as the leading Indian slipped 170-odd positions in the ATP rankings in 2025 while he is on a collision course with second-seed Mayot in the second round. Nagal, however, is not taking any pressure about his chances.

"I am not getting too ahead of myself and worry about how far I can go in this event," the 28-year-old told the media. "For me it's one day at a time, I will take it match by match as I need to enjoy what I like doing the most which is playing tennis. 

Youngster Aryan, who is the second-highest-ranked Indian player at 329, will face Kazakhstan's Beibit Zhukayev for their first-ever face-off. A delighted Aryan expressed his pleasure in playing his first-ever singles draw after making a qualifying round exit to Karan last year.

"I feel so glad to be in the main draw after not making the main draw last year," said the 20-year-old man from Gujarat. "Last year, I had to kind of beg for a wildcard to play here but this year I am in the main draw on merit which really makes it special. As far as my rival is concerned, I have to study him a bit as I have never heard of him before."