Mumbai, February 4:
Defending champion Sidharth Rawat of Uttar Pradesh and Mahak Jain of Uttar Pradesh are the top seeds in the men’s and women’s singles event of the AITA Ranking Rs 22 lakh prize-money JVPG Anirudh Desai All-India Open Tennis Tournament 2018, which is scheduled to commence at the Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana’s floodlit tennis courts from Monday, February 5, 2018. This is the richest prize-money AITA Ranking Tournament in the history of Indian lawn tennis organised by a private club in the country.
The 24-year-old Rawat, currently ranked seventh in the country, will have to contend with second seed Maharashtra’s Arjun Kadhe, who is ranked 10th. Suraj R. Prabodh of Karnataka and current National champion Dalwinder Singh of Punjab are the third and fourth seeds respectively.
The 16-year-old Mahak, who is also India ranked seventh, is followed by Delhi’s Sai Samhitha as the second seed, while another Delhi girl Rishika Sunkara is seeded third and Tamil nadu’s Nithyaraj Baburaj is the fourth seed.
The men and women champions will receive a handsome prize of Rs 2 lakh each and the runner-up will get Rs 1 lakh each. Prize money in the singles will be offered from the first round itself, with the first round losers also gaining Rs 12,000 each. Prize money will also be awarded to the qualifying losers.
This tournament is being conducted to commemorate the memory of the late Anirudh Desai, a club member and tennis aficionado and his family is the title sponsor to the event.
Events will be conducted in men's singles, men's doubles, women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles.
Men’s qualifying 3rd round: Abhinav Sanjeev bt Jaydeep S. Chudasama 9-6; Rhythem Malhotra bt Anshuman Gulia 9-8(7); Aaditya Tewari bt Armaan Bhatia 9-7; Alex Solanki bt Kunj Kotak 9-5; Paras Dahiya bt Krishna Teja Ankam 9-6; Abhimanyu Vannemreddy 9-0; Antarkish Mohandas bt Ayush Hindlekar 9-4; Arpit Sharma bt Chilakalapudi 9-4..
The seedings: Men’s top 8: 1. Sidharth Rawat (UP – rank 7), 2. Arjun Kadhe (Mah - rank 11), 3. Suraj R. Prabodh (KA - rank 13), 4. Dalwinder Singh (PB - rank 15), 5. Manish Sureshkumar (TN - rank 17), 6. Kunal Anand (DL - rank 18), 7. Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (TN - rank 19), 8. Hardeep Singh Sandhu (PB - rank 20).
Women’s top 8: 1. 1. Mahak Jain (MP - rank 7), 2. Sai Samhitha (TN - rank 9), 3. Rishika Sunkara (DL - rank 13), 4. Nithyaraj Baburaj (TN - rank 14), 5. Eetee Maheta (GJ - rank 15), 6. Humera Shaikh (TS - rank 16), 7. Ramya Natrajan (TN - rank 18), 8. Shweta Chandra Rana (DL - rank 19).
Prize Money break-up:
Men’s & Women’s: Winner Rs 2,00,000; Runner-up Rs 1,00,000; losing semi-finalists Rs 50,000 each; losing quarter-finalists Rs 25,000 each; losing pre-quarter-finalists Rs 15,000 each; losing 1st round players Rs 12,000 each.
Doubles (3 categories): Winners Rs 50,000; Runners-up Rs 30,000; losing semi-finalists Rs 20,000 each; losing quarter-finalists Rs 15,000 each.