Doubles specialist Bopanna gets wild card

The announcement was made during a pre-tournament press conference. World No. 38 Bopanna, who clinched the doubles title in the last edition along with Divij Sharan, will lead the Indian challenge in the South Asia’s only ATP Tour tournament. This time, he will partner with local boy Kadhe.

Divij, who will combine with Artem Sitak (New Zealand), has already made the main draw with a direct entry. Kadhe also received wild card entry into the singles main draw. The third wild card has been awarded to Tamil Nadu-based Sasikumar Mukund.

“It’s amazing to have Bopanna back. He clinched the title in the last edition and we hope he will dish out an impressive show with Kadhe this year too,” said Tournament Director Prashant Sutar. With Kadhe and Mukund’s inclusion, five Indian players will now feature in the 28-player singles main draw with 19 makingdirect entry.

Earlier, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Sumit Nagal made it to the main draw with direct entries while Ramkumar Ramanathan was given wild card. Two more players will come in as special exempts into the main draw and four will come through the qualification round. Saketh Myneni and Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis were handed wild card entries in thesingles qualifiers.

The third edition of India’s premier 250 event will see the highest prize money in the tournament’s history. “The upcoming edition will see a total prize money of US$ 546,355, which is the highest-ever. We are also introducing shot clocks for the first time in this tournament,” said MSLTA Secretary Sunder Iyer.

The shot clocks will count 25 seconds allowed between points. The main draw will be announced on Saturday while the qualification rounds will be played on Saturday and Sunday.