Chennai, Jan 11 (UNI) Promising players from 14 countries, including India, will be seen in action in the BR Adityan ITF Men’s M25 Futures Singles and Doubles Tennis tournament to be held at the SDAT-Tennis stadium here from January 13 to 19.
A press release from the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) here said countries that would take part in the tournament included France, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Greece, Japan, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Uzbekistan, United States of America. Morocco, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Korea and Indonesia.
This edition of the tournament will be bigger and better than last year’s edition in terms of prize money offered as it has been increased to USD 30,000 from USD 25,000.
The points offered will be 25 ATP points for the Winners and 16 ATP points for the Runner Up.
The Chennai public will be treated to some excellent tennis during the Pongal holiday week.
As per the acceptance list, Jelle Sels from Netherlands ranked 294, will lead the foreign challenge in the main draw of 32.
The Indian challenge will be led by Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan who was Seeded No. 2.
Other Indians in the draw included former National champion Manish Suresh Kumar, Karan Singh and current National runner-up Nitin Kumar Sinha.
The four Wild cards for the main draw are Manish Suresh Kumar, Pranav Karthick, Nitin Kumar Sinha and Siddhant Banthia.
Saman Hassani from Iran will be the ITF Referee for the tournament and Mr Hiten Joshi will be the Tournament Director.
In the Indian context, the ITF Futures event has a special connotation – it enables Indian players to experience a high level of international competition on home ground and earn valuable ATP World Ranking Points.
These points enable the aspiring and competent players to participate in higher level of tournaments at home and abroad and climb up the international ladder.
The qualifying rounds will be held on Sunday and the main draw matches will commence on Tuesday.
The sign in for the Singles qualifying will be held till this evening and for the doubles on Monday.
The Doubles Final will be held on Saturday January 18 and the Singles title clash the next Day, Sunday.
