The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Six top ranked players for Mumbai ATP event

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 07, 2006

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Six top ranked players for Mumbai ATP event

Special Correspondent

GAME, SET AND MATCH: Vijay Mallya, Chairman and CEO, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. and Mahesh Bhupathi at the unveiling of Kingfisher Airlines Open logo in Mumbai. — PHOTO: SHASHI ASHIWAL

Mumbai: Kingfisher Airlines will sponsor the ATP Mumbai Open for three years, the first of which will be held at the Cricket Club of India, Mumbai from September 25 to October 1.

The tournament will now be known as Kingfisher Airlines tennis Open. This was announced at a press conference on Tuesday evening in the presence of Kingfisher Airlines Chairman and CEO Vijay Mallya, Globosport Managing director Mahesh Bhupathi and tournament Director Gaurav Natekar.

Bhupathi said that the airlines would spend Rs. 3.5 crores in the inaugural year. Six professionals in the top 20 ATP ranking would take part in the tournament. The total prize money would be $3,80,000 with the men's singles winner taking $52,000.

"Mumbai has not seen world-class tennis for many years. The India-Pakistan Davis Cup runner turned out to be a hit and the ATP event, I am sure, would provide top class entertainment for tennis followers in Mumbai,'' said Bhupathi, who will be partnering Croatian Mario Ancic in the doubles competition and hinted that wild cards may by awarded to Rohan Bopanna, Karan Rastogi and Prakash Amritraj.

The 32-card draw will have some big names like Tommy Robredo, Radek Stepanek, Mario Ancic, Carlos Moya, Fabrice Santoro and Greg Rusedski. "You may feel that Greg's career is on the decline, but for us professionals, Greg is a very competitive player,'' said Bhupathi, when asked if the Canadian-born player from Great Britain is still a force to reckon with.

Bhupathi said Leander Paes will compete in the doubles event with Martin Damm.

The field: 1. Tommy Robredo (Esp), 2. Radek Stepanek (Cze), 3. Mario Ancic (Cro), 4. Fernando Gonzalez (Chi), 5. Tomas Berdych (Cze), 6. Nicolas Kiefer (Ger), 7. Dmitry Tursunov (Rus), 8. Carlos Moya (Esp), 9. Fabrice Santoro (Fra), 10. Davide Sanguinetti (Ita), 11. Bjorn Phau (Ger), 12. Juan Monaco (Arg), 13. Wesley Moodie (RSA), 14. Simon Greul (Ger), 15. Robin Vik (Cze), 16. Denis Gremelmayr (Ger), 17. Stefano Galvani (Ita), 18. Ramon Delgado (Par), 19. Stefan Koubek (Aut), 20. Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg), 21. Kristian Pless (Den), 22. Igor Kunitsyn (Rus), 23. Rik de Voest (RSA), 24. Nicolas Devilder (Fra), 25. Greg Rusedski (GBR). Three wild cards and four qualifiers will complete the draw.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport