With the only ATP event in India shifting from opening week of the year to the first week of February, it is for the first time since 2003 that the tournament will not feature a single player from the top 10. It is a gilt-edged chance for the Indian players, five of whom are in the main draw, to make an impact. While Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Sumit Nagal entered the tournament on merit, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sasikumar Mukund and Arjun Kadhe received a wild card into the main draw of the Pune Open, which will be held at the Balewadi Stadium from Monday.
Meanwhile, Saketh Myneni got a wildcard for the qualifying event. “It has been difficult to get players this time around,” said tournament director Prashant Sutar. “We had to shift it out because of the ATP Cup (which took place in the first week of January). The ATP gave us two windows, one in February and one in September. This was preferable to us. Earlier players used to come to India on the way to the Australian Open.” Most of the tournaments struggle to get the top players in the week immediately after a Grand Slam. Pune is one of the three cities that’s hosting an ATP event this week; Montpellier and Cordoba are the others. Montpellier offers only a little more prize money than Pune (approximately $672,702 to Pune’s $610,010) but has a far better field.
World No 10 Gael Monfils leads the field, which will also see names like Grigor Dimitrov, Denis Shapovalov, Richard Gasquet and David Goffin compete. Meanwhile, the top seed at Pune is world No 21 Benoit Paire, with other notable names being Ivo Karlovic and second seed Ricardas Berankis. “After losing at the Australian Open the players are going back home to Europe and staying there,” added Sutar. According to the draw, made on Saturday, India’s top-ranked player Prajnesh Gunneswaran will take on Germany’s world no 125 Yannick Madden in the opening round. It will be tough going for Ramkumar and Kadhe, who have been drawn to play seventh seed Salvatore Caruso and former world No 35 Jiri Vesely respectively in the first round. Wildcard Mukund will face Taro Daniel, while Nagal will take on a qualifier first up.
Paes-Ebden given wild card
Indian doubles legend Leander Paes, who is on a farewell tour, has been awarded a wild card in the doubles category, along with Matthew Ebden of Australia. Likely to play his last event in the nation, Paes has a tough task ahead as he and Ebden will be pitted against second seeds Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak in the first round of the tournament. Purav Raja and Ramkumar Ramanathan, who are in the same quarter as Paes, will take on the German pair of Peter Gojowczyk and Cedrik-Marcel Stebe. Meanwhile, wild card entrants Rohan Bopanna and Kadhe are slated to meet Frenchmen Paire and Antoine Hoang in the opener.