With a stiff cut off at 149, the country's premier ATP 250 event will also witness some of the experienced names as well as promising young guns from the tennis world such as Australia's John Millman, Portugal's best tennis player of all time Joao Sousa and teenage sensation Lorenzo Musetti.The 19-year-old Musetti made the headlines last year when he became the youngest player to break into the Top-100. In his short career so far, the young Italian star has impressed everyone with his consistent match-winning performances against the Top-10 players including Stan Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov, and Kei Nishikori. While the 32-year-old experienced campaigner Millman will be another player to watch out at Pune's event. He had a breakthrough year in 2018 in which he defeated Roger Federer at the US Open and also entered the Top-50 in the world rankings.India's Yuki Bhambri will also kickstart his campaign in the main draw with a protected ranking. After recovering from an injury, Bhambri is currently preparing for the upcoming Australian Open."We had worked really hard to bring back this tournament. I would like to thank all the stakeholders for their continuous support, throughout. We are aware of the challenges ahead but we are ready to tackle them all, strategically. MSLTA have successfully conducted a few tournaments recently and I believe we can pull this off too. The safety of the players as well as others involved is of prime importance to us and, as organisers, we will not compromise on that. We will be strictly following the government's Covid-19 guidelines to bring yet another successful edition," MSLTA Secretary Sunder Iyer said.Czech Republic star Jiri Vesely, who ended his 5-year long wait for a singles title in the last edition, will be presenting a strong challenge on his comeback into the city. Among the other names, from the third edition, returning to Pune are: runner-up Egor Gerasimov, all-time highest ranked Lithuanian star Ricardas Berankis, World No. 49 James Duckworth, and Italian star Stefano Travaglia, who clinched his first ATP challenger title in Sibiu recently.Former Youth Olympics champion Kamil Majchrzak, Moldova's first-ever ATP singles title winner Radu Albot, and World No. 62 Gianluca Mager are the other notable names from the acceptance list.The qualifying draws will take place on January 30 and 31.
--IANScs/bsk
(Disclaimer: This post has been auto published from IANS news agency without any modification to the text and has not been reviewed by editor)
