Bengaluru, Jan 22 (IANS): The third edition of Bengaluru Open, an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour event, has lined up four players ranked under top 100 and 13 players in the top 150, an official said on Wednesday.
"I think this is one of the best fields seen on the ATP Challenger circuit. There is great depth in the quality of the field and it is a high cut-off draw, " said tournament director Sunil Yajaman in a statement.
Top tennis players ranked under 100 arriving in Bengaluru include 69th ranked Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis, 74th ranked Italian Stefano Travaglia, 91st ranked Japanese Yuichi Sugita and 94th ranked Australian James Duckworth.
The Indian lineup counts defending champion Prajnesh Gunneswaran, highest ranked Indian at 123, 2017 tournament winner Sumit Nagal, ranked 131, Ramkumar Ramnathan, 185, and Mukund Sasikumar, 267.
Contenders ranked under 150 comprise Russia's Evgeny Donskoy, 106, Czech Republic's Jiri Vesely, 109, Italy's Thomas Fabbiano, 114, Germany's Peter Gojowsczyk, 120, China's Zhizen Zhang, 137, Slovakia's Blaz Rola, 145 and Belarus' Ilya Ivashka, 149.
According an international character to the tournament, the main draw has 48 players from 22 countries and alternate players list consists of players from 12 countries.
Out of the main draw of 48 players, 40 got direct entry, and the balance includes four wild cards, two qualifiers and one special exempt category.
"The strong field means our boys will get a chance to rub shoulders with the best in the field and a great opportunity to improve, apart from earning valuable points that will catapult them into getting an entry into bigger events," said Priyank Kharge, chairman of the organising Committee.
Scheduled from February 10-16 at Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA), Bengaluru Open offers a winning purse of $1,62,000.