CHENNAI: Five Indian singles players will be in action in the qualifying rounds of the Chennai Open beginning on Saturday.
Rutuja Bhosale, Riya Bhatia, Sowjanya Bavisetti, Sai Chamarthi and Lakshmi Prabha Arunkumar will aim to join both Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi, who have been handed main draw wildcards. Japan’s Yuki Naito is the top seed in the qualifying round which will see 24 women feature.
Naito will face Arunkumar, a Tamil Nadu player who has been given a wildcard. The first of the two rounds before the main draw will begin at the SDAT tennis stadium on Saturday morning.
Garcia, Mertens pull out
As expected, Caroline Garcia, who reached the semifinals of the US Open, has withdrawn from the Chennai Open. It would have been too much for the Frenchwoman to get ready for a tournament halfway across the globe in under five days. Elise Mertens seeded third, and also pulled out of the event.
The Belgian, who lost in the first round of the US Open last week, withdrew because of an injury. As a result, Canada’s Carol Zhao and Greece’s Despina Papamichail are now in the main draw. The top seed is US’ Alison Riske, who lost to Garcia in the fourth round of the US Open.
Select matches (only Indians) : Nao Hibino (JPN) vs Sai Chamarthi, Sowjanya Bavisetti vs Kyoka Okamura (JPN), Yuki Naito (JPN) vs Lakshmi Arunkumar, Rutuja Bhosale vs En-Shuo Liang (TPE), Justina Mikulskyte (LTU) vs Riya Bhatia.