ATP Tata Open (Pune), January 2019

[PKBasu]

The first news about the Tata Maharashtra Open next year (January) is that Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson will be playing:

https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/spo ... 451151.cms

[jaydeep]

Also WR #26 Hyeon Chung has confirmed his participation.

[sameerph]

Anderson was runner up this year in Pune. Next year he should be one of the favourites.

[bujilover]

MAIN DRAW
1 ANDERSON, Kevin RSA 6
2 CILIC, Marin CRO 7
3 CHUNG, Hyeon KOR 25
4 SIMON, Gilles FRA 30
5 JAZIRI, Malek TUN 45
6 PAIRE, Benoit FRA 52
7 CARBALLES BAENA, Roberto ESP 73
8 MUNAR, Jaume ESP 75
9 ANDUJAR, Pablo ESP 83
10 HURKACZ, Hubert POL 87
11 VESELY, Jiri CZE 89
12 DARCIS, Steve BEL 90PR
13 IVASHKA, Ilya BLR 91
14 ISTOMIN, Denis UZB 92
15 DJERE, Laslo SRB 93
16 GULBIS, Ernests LAT 95
17 GRANOLLERS, Marcel ESP 96
18 DONSKOY, Evgeny RUS 97
19 KARLOVIC, Ivo CRO 99
20 ALBOT, Radu MDA 101
21 MMOH, Michael USA 102
22 [WC]
23 [WC]
24 [WC]
25 [Q]
26 [Q]
27 [Q]
28 [Q]

ALTERNATES
1 SOUSA, Pedro POR 103
2 SONEGO, Lorenzo ITA 106
3 AUGER-ALIASSIME, Felix CAN 107
4 LORENZI, Paolo ITA 108
5 RUUD, Casper NOR 110
6 LACKO, Lukas SVK 112
7 MONTEIRO, Thiago BRA 114
8 BEMELMANS, Ruben BEL 115
9 GUNNESWARAN, Prajnesh IND 117
10 LONDERO, Juan Ignacio ARG 119

2 top-10 players! Good job organizers , but other than top-6 seeds, pretty weak entry list overall.

[PKBasu]

Which week's rankings are these based on? Prajnesh was 117 then, but is 104 now (110 according to the new ranking system). Also until a few weeks ago, Yuki was around 101-109, so where's his name?? I hope he entered...

[sameerph]

This is based on rankings as on 19th November when Prajnesh was ranked 117 in shadow rankings. After the Pune challenger he moved up to 110. Yuki was further down. It does look like any of them can get in directly into main draw.

[Rajiv]

Yes it is unlikely anyone one of them can make the MD , and all our Top 3 will have to rely on WC's.
And just like last year hope all the 3 WC's go to the Indians.
Prajnesh , Ram , Yuki should be the logical choices as they are the one's who need it the most and also can make full use of it , rather than wasting a precious WC on some promising player or a local player.(Maybe they can be beneficiaries of a Quali WC)

[Atithee]

Rajiv, why Yuki?

[PKBasu]

Because he has been India #1, 2 or 3 throughout 2018 (#1 for most of the year). If he is not injured, he definitely deserves one of the main draw wildcards.

[sameerph]

Yes, if Yuki is not injured, he has a better chance than anyone else barring Prajnesh to pull off a win in main draw. But, my guess is one of the wild cards may go to local boy Arjun Kadhe.

[PKBasu]

Arjun will probably get a wildcard, like he did last year. But it would be better to have him play the qualifiers, and win a round or two (thus earning some points) rather than losing in R1 of the main draw again. Let us see if the Maharashtra Open can rise above parochialism.
Giving Arjun a doubles wildcard (and helping him to get a strong partner) would help him much more.

[sameerph]

This is the qualifying entry list for Pune ATP-

QUALIFYING SINGLES *SHADOW RANKINGS USED FOR ENTRY*
1 SOUSA, Pedro POR 104
2 AUGER-ALIASSIME, Felix CAN 108
3 GUNNESWARAN, Prajnesh IND 110
4 BEMELMANS, Ruben BEL 117
5 MONTEIRO, Thiago BRA 120
6 JUNG, Jason TPE 121
7 RAMANATHAN, Ramkumar IND 132
8 BOLELLI, Simone ITA 142
9 HOANG, Antoine FRA 150
10 QUINZI, Gianluigi ITA 156
11 GERASIMOV, Egor BLR 158
12 SCHNUR, Brayden CAN 173
13 VATUTIN, Alexey RUS 176
14 OFNER, Sebastian AUT 180
15 [WC]
16 [WC]

ALTERNATES
1 BRANDS, Daniel GER 183
2 MARTIN, Andrej SVK 184
3 UCHIYAMA, Yasutaka JPN 186
4 GIMENO-TRAVER, Daniel ESP 190
5 KAVCIC, Blaz SLO 207
6 HEMERY , Calvin FRA 217
7 AREVALO, Marcelo ESA 221
8 MORONI, Gian Marco ITA 227


Prajnesh and RamK are in the entry list but no Yuki. Is he not even sure of even playing in 1 month's time or keeping his option open for main draw wild card between Pune and Doha ?

[sameerph]

Doubles entry list is out for Pune ATP -

Bopanna/Sharan
Albot/Jaziri
Oswald/Puetz
Arevalo/Cerretani
G. Granollers/M. Granollers
Bambridge/O’Mara
Paes/Reyes-Varela
Bolelli/Dodig
Molchanov/Zelenay
Monroe/Nedunchezhiyan

So, Rohan-Divij are expected to be top seed. Leander continues with his Reyes-Varela, his partner for last few months. Also Jeevan is getting a good partner in Monroe if he is continuing with him for Australian open.

Only a little more than a week left for qualies to begin. So, wild cards should ideally be announced in next 2-3 days.

[bujilover]

Per Prajnesh’s Instagram story, he has received one of the MD WCs. Not surprising but curious to know who the other recipients are.

EDIT: Wildcards announced Looks like Yuki needs to qualify for the MD, if they decide to give the 3rd WC for Arjun.

[jaydeep]

Yes, good selection of the main draw wild-cards: Prajnesh and Ram ... And the qualifying wild-cards goes to Saki and Mukund.
The organizers r not sure about Yuki's participation as no such confirmation (commitment) from him ... They r also expecting a last minute entry from the quality player so withheld the 3rd wild-card.