Bengaluru Open 2023 | Seven Indians in fray as qualifiers begin on Sunday
Leo Borg, son of legendary Bjorn Borg, handed a wildcard entry into the main draw of the DafaNews Bengaluru Open 2023, starting from February 20. The singles main draw was announced on Saturday, which featured Tseng Chun-Hsin, the 21-year-old World No 132 from Taipei, as the top seed.
Tseng will open his campaign against Ferreira Silva of Portugal on February 20 while the 19-year-old Leo Borg, currently World No 511 will be seen in action against Taipei’s World No 200 Yu Hsiou Hsu. Leo had entered the Round of 32 in the Chennai Open last week where he lost to Serbia’s 19-year-old Hamad Medjedovic, a pupil of 22-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic. Medjedovic too will be seen in action on Day 1 of the Bengaluru Open, facing a Qualifier.
From an Indian perspective, two players will be seen in action on the first day of the main draw. Sumit Nagar and Karnataka lad SD Prajwal Dev were handed wildcard entry to the tournament. Sumit Nagal will face Vietnamese player Ly Hoang Nam while Prajwal will lock horns with one of the Qualifiers on Day 1.
James Duckworth of Australia, who was ranked as high as 47 in ATP, is seeded second in the Bengaluru Open. Duckworth had reached the quarterfinals of Chennai Open before losing to compatriot Max Purcell, who had won the 2022 Wimbledon doubles title with Matthew Ebden.
The Qualifiers will start at the KSLTA Courts on Sunday (February 18). As many as 7 Indian players will feature in the Qualifiers. Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran will be the main attractions of the Qualifiers. Prajnesh will face Zimbabwe’s Benjamin Lock, while Ramkumar will be up against Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan.
Other than these two, Indian talents such as M Ganesh, Dalwinder Singh, K Tyagi, M Sasikumar and Sidharth Rawat will vie for a spot in the main draw.
ORDER OF PLAY (QUALIFIERS)
Qualifying - M. Ganesh (IND) vs C. Sanchez Jover (ESP)
Qualifying - P. Gunneswaran (IND) vs B. Lock (ZIM)
Qualifying - Y. Uchiyama (JPN) vs R. Ramanathan (IND)
Qualifying - J. Clarke (GBR) vs C. Sinclair (NMI)
COURT 1
Qualifying - J. Jung (TPE) vs V. Orlov (UKR)
Qualifying - D. Singh (IND) vs J. McCabe (AUS)
Qualifying - N. Milojevic (SRB) vs K. Tyagi (IND)
Qualifying - A. Santillan (AUS) vs A. Kachmazov
COURT 2
Qualifying - M. Sasikumar (IND) vs A. Paulson (CZE)
Qualifying - H. Moriya (JPN) vs S. Rawat (IND)
Qualifying - D. Palan (CZE) vs G. Mpetshi Perricard (FRA)
Qualifying - D. Kelly (AUS) vs Y. Chung (KOR)