Vishnu Vardhan top seed in ITF event

Mandya (Karnataka), May 23 (IANS) Davis Cupper Vishnu Vardhan, ranked 385, heads the singles field as the top seed in the $10,000 ITF Futures Men's Tour tournament to be held here from May 28 to June 2.

According to Mandya Deputy Commissioner P.C. Jaffer, who is also the tournament organising committee chairman, the qualifying round matches would be played May 26 and 27 at the PET Stadium courts while Prem Sugars are the title sponsors.

Besides Vardhan, nine other Indian players figure in the main draw including Vijayant Malik (448), Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (510), Rohan Gajjar (545), Saketh Myneni (588), N Sriram Balaji (650), Ashwin Vijayragavan (946), Vignesh Peranamallur (959) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (966) and Sidharth Rawat (1124).

Vinod Gowda will provide the local flavour while the tournament has attracted entries from Britain, Italy, Australia, the US, China and France.

Eight qualifiers would make it to the main draw along with four wild cards to complete the field of 32. The final is slated for June 2.

This is the first time an ITF Men's Futures is being held in Mandya which had hosted the women's ITF tournament in 2010.

With the ITF tourneys taking place in Tier-II cities, it opens up a huge platform for the young players to make an entry into the professional circuit, and earn valuable ATP tour ranking points.

Jaffer said: 'We appreciate and thank AITA and KSlTA for putting their faith in us and giving us the opportunity to host this event. It is an honour for Mandya to host a tournament of this magnitude.'