Pranjala Yadlapalli, seeded third, will be among five upcoming Indian players who will take part in the 16-player strong qualification stage of the women’s singles at the Mumbai Open Saturday onwards.
Four qualifiers will progress to the main draw of the $125K WTA event with the tournament proper beginning on Monday at the Cricket Club of India’s (CCI) courts in Mumbai.
Ankita Raina is the only Indian player to enter the main draw directly.
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Mahak Jain (ranked 658) and Mihika Yadav have been given wild cards while Sowjanya Bavisetti (ranked 918) and Ashmitha Eeshwaramurthi (1167) are the other Indians in the draw.
Pranjala, the world No 280, will face fellow Indian Mihika Yadav (998) in round one of the qualifiers, while Mahak will take on sixth seeded Russian Yana Sizikova, Sowjanya will face second seed Hiroko Kawata of Japan and Ashmitha will line up against Georgia’s seventh seeded Sofia Shapatava.
Czech Republic’s Tereza Martincova is the top seed in the singles qualifiers, while Urszula Radwanska of Poland, Natalija Kostic of Serbia and Ksenia Palkina of Kazakhstan are the other seeds in the qualifying stage of singles.
Matches start at 11 AM on Saturday.