Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan earn Pune wild cards
The Tata Open Maharashtra will take place in Pune for the second time in the opening week of 2019, moving from Chennai in 2018 after more than 20 years. The organizers have managed to gather a strong field of players, led by top-10 stars Marin Cilic and Kevin Anderson, with Hyeon Chung and the defending champion Gilles Simon who also set the eyes on the first prize. The Mhalunge Balewadi Stadium will also host two top-ranked Indian singles players, with Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan receiving wild cards to enter the main draw directly.
In addition, Saketh Myneni and Sasi Kumar Mukund will have the opportunity to qualify for the main draw, earning qualifying wild cards where they will fight against the names like Felix Auger-Aliassime, Ruben Bemelmans, Thiago Monteiro, Simone Bolelli and others. The 29-year-old Prajnesh Gunneswaran has completed the best season in a career after gaining more than 130 positions on the list to barely miss the top-100 cut. A year ago, Prajnesh was a qualifier in Pune and he improved his ranking after winning 26 Challenger matches in 2018, playing in four finals and winning titles in Anning and Bangalore.
In the last week of the season, Prajnesh was defeated in the final of Pune Challenger and he will try to shift that form into the ATP event as well. The 24-year-old Ramkumar Ramanathan had seven ATP wins in the season behind us, reaching the first ATP final in Newport where he lost to Steve Johnson, adding 15 Challenger triumphs to his tally and finishing runner-up in Taipei to his compatriot Yuki Bhambri. Ramkumar achieved his career-high ranking in July and will try to excel his game in 2019 again and crack the top-100 for the first time, sharing the same goal with Gunneswaran and seeking the first good result in front of the home fans in Pune.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2CsICP1
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