Indians get tough draw in ATP SAIL Open

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New Delhi, May 10: Indians were handed a tough draw in ATP Challenger Series’ SAIL Open with Rohan Bopanna pitted against fourth seed Go Soeda of Japan and Prakash Amritraj taking on third seed Dane Kristian Pless in the opening round of the USD 50,000 tournament starting here on Monday.

Soeda was a part of the Japanese team that lost to India in the Davis Cup last month where he was beaten by Prakash Amritraj in the second singles of the tie. However, Soeda’s ATP ranking of 132 gives him an edge over the 303rd-placed Bopanna.

Pless, meanwhile, is ranked 129th, a good 117 places above Amritraj.

None of the Indians got seedings, which were topped by Chinese Taipei’s Yen-Huan Lu, ranked 90th in the ATP charts.

Comeback man Harsh Mankad, who sat through India’s Davis Cup win over Japan, has been given a wildcard entry and he takes on French Thomas Oger, ranked close to 400 places above him at 276th in the ATP rankings.

Another wildcard Indian Ashutosh Singh also has tough opener at hand as he takes on eighth seeded Russian Alexandre Kudryavtsev.

Teen sensation Yuki Bhambri, who led the country to the world group play off of the junior Davis Cup, has also been given a wildcard and he will be up against Adam Feeney, who is ranked 274th — close to 1000 places above the Indian.

The other prominent contenders in the tournament include Pakistani number one Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, seeded sixth and drawn against American of Indian origin Rajeev Ram.