It might sound odd but eighth seed Zane Khan of the US will start as the favourite in the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament to be played at the Deccan Gymkhana from Tuesday.
The 19-year-old Zane has dropped only one set while winning back to back titles in the last two tournaments in Lucknow and Indore.
Sidharth Rawat will attempt to do better as he has the honour of being the top seed. Manish Sureshkumar and the newly crowned national champion Arjun Kadhe are the only other Indians among the seeds, at sixth and seventh respectively.
It should be another opportunity for Indian players to capitalise on international events at home after the pandemic.
In the final qualifying round, Faisal Qamar beat top seed Anirudh Chandrasekar 6-4, 3-6, [17-15].
He was joined in the main draw by Ishaque Eqbal, Paras Dahiya, V.M. Ranjeet, Vijay Sudnar Prashanth and Suraj Prabodh among Indians.
The seedings: 1. Sidharth Rawat, 2. Simon Carr (Irl), 3. Adan Mchugh (GBR), 4. Oliver Crawford (US), 5. Jonathan Mridha, 6. Manish Sureshkumar, 7. Arjun Kadhe, 8. Zane Khan (US).
The results: Qualifying singles (second and final round): Faisal Qamar bt Anirudh Chandrasekar 6-4, 3-6, [17-15]; Ishaque Eqbal bt Chandril Sood 6-3, 6-2; Omni Kumar (US) bt Digvijay Pratap Singh 7-6(1), 7-5; Henry Patten (GBR) bt Leonardo Catani (Ita) 6-2, 6-4; Paras Dahiya bt George Botezan (Rou) 6-2, 6-3; V.M. Ranjeet bt Rishi Reddy 7-5, 2-6, [10-4]; Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Preston Brown (US) 6-2, 6-1; Suraj Prabodh bt Muthu Aadhitiya Senthilkumar 6-2, 6-2.
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