TENNIS
Wildcards for Manas Dhamne, Aryan Shah, Karan Singh in ATP tennis meet
Upcoming players Manas Dhamne, Aryan Shah and Karan Singh were on Thursday handed wildcard entries for the Pune Open ATP Challenger 100 men’s tennis championship in which top players from 28 countries will be seen in action here from February 16-23.
The tournament, to be organised by Maharashtra State Lawn tennis Association (MSLTA) in association with the department of sports and youth services in the Maharashtra government, will be held at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Mhalunge Balewadi.
The Pune event is the third of a series of four ATP Challenger events being held in India. The previous tournaments were held at Chennai and Delhi while the last event will be played at Bengaluru.
As far as the wildcard entries are concerned, 17-year-old Dhamne is coming off a USD 15000 ITF win at Monastir, Tunisia last week, 19-year-old Shah has been performing well in the last year at ITF events, and Karan, 21, made his Davis Cup debut two weeks ago.
The tournament carries a total prize purse of Rs 1.12 crore. The winner will receive 100 ATP ranking points and Rs.15.50 lakh and the runner-up will get 60 ATP points and Rs 9 lakh.
The first round loser will receive Rs 1.10 lakh, and the the qualifier will also get an incentive of Rs 33,000.
The main draw consists of 32 players – 23 direct acceptances, 3 wild cards, and 6 qualifiers. Qualifying will comprise 24 players with 4 wild cards.
Entry for spectators to witness the matches is free.
– PTI
Content Source: sportstar.thehindu.com