Manipal: ITF Men’s Tournament from May 23 to 28, 2011

By Subhas Marne
Bellevision Media Network

Manipal, 22 May 2011: Manipal University known for the quality education it imparts, will now figure on the international tennis scene for hosting Udupi District’s first global tennis event, the $10,000 ITF Men’s tournament at the university’s indoor sports complex (MARENA) courts here from May 23 to 28. The tournament, with Corporation Bank as the title sponsor, will be conducted by The Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association in association with Zygosports Unlimited, a premier sports management company, will be inaugurated by Chancellor, Dr Ramdas M Pai, Padma Bhushan on Monday at 9 am.

 

The draw for the championship was held here on Saturday and drawing the lots were Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Udupi district Mr. T.M. Prabhakar, Pro Chancellor of Manipal University, Dr.H.S.Ballal and AGM of Corporation Bank Mr. K.N.V. Prabhu.

 

Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan is the top seed, Rohan Gajjar the second seed, Takuto Niki of Japan is three and the rest of the seeded players are: Vijayant Malik 4, Vitali Reshetnikov of Russia 5, Kaza Vinayak Sharma 6, Koki Matsunaga of Japan 7 and Vivek Shokeen 8.

 

 

 

 

 

As the host association, the KSLTA has allotted two wild cards to two talented local youngsters, Sagar Manjanna and Vinod Gowda. The other two wild cards, as decided jointly by All India Tennis & KSLTA are Vishwanath Savadi, an upcoming player of Karnataka from Bijapur & Rohan Gajjar of Maharsahtra. Gajjar has a ranking of 552.

 

The main draw includes some top Indian contenders including National champion, Ranjeet Virlai Murugesan, with an ATP ranking of 549 heads the list. Other top Indian players in the fray are Vivek Shokeen, Ajai Selvaraj, Akash Wagh and P.Vignesh. The event has also attracted players from Japan, Germany, Russia and few other countries.

 

The $ 10,000 events are basically considered as entry level professional tournaments for players to earn points and move up the ladder to compete later in ATP tournaments. The singles winner and finalist would earn $1300 and $990 respectively as prize money.

 

Besides Corporation Bank, which is the title sponsor, Lanco Group and Udupi District administration is Platinum sponsor of this event. Tebma Shipyards Ltd, Syneffra, Navayuga Engineering Ltd & Fortune inn Valley View are the Gold Sponsors. The Co-sponsors include Wilson, Kingfisher Mineral Water, State Bank of India & Abharan Jewellers.