Radu Albot gets the top billing; Prajnesh seeded No. 4 at Bengaluru Open

Saketh Myneni (second from right) pulls out a draw during the Draw Ceremony of the US $ 150,000 prize money Bengaluru Open at the KSLTA on Saturday.

Bengaluru, November 10: India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaram who is seeded no. 4 will begin his quest for the US $ 150,000 Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger Tournament taking on Russian Ivan Nedelko in the first round which begins at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association here on Monday while top seed Radu Albot of Moldova, who is ranked No. 100 will clash with a qualifier. Prajnesh is currently ranked 141st while Nedelko is ranked 123 places below him.

In an interesting battle, the finalists of the previous edition, defending champion Sumit Nagal and seventh seed Jay Clarke will take on each other in the first round. Sumit has been awarded a Wild Card. Argentinian Marco Trungelliti who is ranked 121st is seeded second while Elias Yemer of Sweden is seeded third. Australian Marc Polsman has is seeded fifth while Quentin Halys of France is seeded sixth. Flip Peliwo of Canada is the last seed at No.8.

The other Indian players to get a direct through wild cards – Adil Kalyanpuri and Saketh Myneni will face off with each other in the first round while Suraj Prabodh faces sixth seed Quentin Halys.

The draw ceremony was held at the KSLTA where Dr. Rajneesh Goyal, Additional Chief Secretary, Home and Youth Empowerment and Sports, Government of Karnataka, India’s leading player Saketh Myneni, M Lakshminarayan, Addl. Chief Secretary for Govt. of Karnataka and Hon. Vice President, KSLTA along with Tournament Director Sunil Yajaman were present.

Meanwhile, as many as five Indians Siddharth Vishwakarma, Ranjeet Murugesan, Arjun Kadhe, Mukund Sasikumar and Aryan Goveas advanced to the second round. Khumoyun Sultanov of Uzbekistan created a flutter when he stunned the second seed Liam Broady of Britain in straight sets 6-3, 7-5 to move into the second round.

Results Men’s Singles Qualifiers Round -1

1-Nicola Kuhn (ESP) bt Ben Patael (ISR) 6-3, 7-6 (3);

Youssef Hossam (EGY) bt W-SD Prajwal Dev (IND) 7-6 (3), 6-3;

W-Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND) bt Chien-Hsun Lo (TPE) 6-2, 2-6, 7-5;

5-Antoine Escoffier (FRA) bt Miliaan Niesten (NED) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4;

Khumoyun Sultanov (UZB) bt 2-Liam Broady (GBR) 6-3, 7-5;

W-Ranjeet Murugesan (IND) bt Niki Poonacha (IND) 7-5, 6-3;

Sebastian Fanselow (GER) bt Manish Suresh Kumar (IND) 6-1, 6-2;

3-Arjun Kadhe (IND) bt Mick Lescure (FRA) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2;

Jurabek Karimov (UZB) bt Viktor Durasovic (NOR) 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (1);

Lucas Gerch (GER) bt W-Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) 6-3, 6-4;

7-Mukund Sasi Kumar (IND) bt Michael Zhu (US) 6-2, 6-0;