Benoit Paire, currently ranked 41, and veteran world no 164 Tommy Robredo will headline the qualifying rounds of the first Tata Open Maharashtra, to be held in Pune on December 30 and 31. Four players will book their spot for the main draw of the season-opening ATP World Tour 250 Series starting January 1.
The others names in the fray are Marco Cecchinato (110) of Italy, who lost his qualifying match to India’s Yuki Bhambri last year, Adrian Menendez- Maceiras, (127) Carlos Taberner, (186) and Ricardo Ojeda Lara (199).
The qualifying draw list also includes India’s Sumit Nagal and Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Ruben Bemelmans (118)from Belgium, Thiago Monteiro (124) from Brazil and Egor Gerasimov (149) from Bulgaria, it was announced on Tuesday.
The tournament, hosted by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) in association with the government of Maharashtra, will be held at the Mhalunge Balewadi Stadium in Pune.
Paire has made five appearances in the Indian ATP event, formerly held in Chennai. The Frenchman reached the semi-final of this event thrice - in 2017, 2016 and 2012.
Spaniard Robredo will be coming back to India after a 14-year gap. In 2004, he lost a nail-biting semi-final to Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand while in 2002 he lost in the last-four match to Russian Andrei Stoliarov.
Robredo, who withdrew from last season’s event due to an injury, has also the Chennai Open doubles title with Rafael Nadal in 2004.
Nagal comes after a victorious campaign at the ATP Bengaluru Open where he lifted his maiden Challenger level title with a win over Briton Jay Clarke last month.
The 20-year-old Nagal also toppled India’s Davis Cup singles campaigner Yuki Bhambri and top seed Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic to rise to his career-best ranking of 223.
Gunneswaran approaches the qualifying round of this event for the fourth time at the back of three ITF tournament wins; China F10 in Kunshan, India F6 in Trivandrum and India F4 in Bhilai this year. The left-handed player from Chennai will look to continue his pursuit for a spot in the main draw that has eluded him in his three attempts.
“With the likes of Paire and Robredo, this year’s qualifying round line-up adds to the excitement of the event. India’s representation also looks strong with Gunneswaran and Nagal all in good form in recent past,” said tournament director Prashant Sutar.
