Bedene through to main draw after Robredo pullout

Brit Aljaz Bedene will take his spot in the main draw of the tournament while India's Sasi Kumar Mukund has been given a wild card for the qualifying draw to fill up the space vacated by Bedene.

Aljaz Bedene during a practice session in Chennai on Friday.

Spain’s Tommy Robredo has pulled out of the Aircel Chennai Open owing to a foot injury. The Spaniard entered the tournament with an injury protected ranking of 57.

Brit Aljaz Bedene will take his spot in the main draw of the tournament while India's Sasi Kumar Mukund has been given a wild card for the qualifying draw to fill up the space vacated by Bedene.

India’s Yuki Bhambri will play Italy’s Marco Cecchinato while Mukund is up against Argentina’s Nicolas Kicker in the first round qualifying matches. The two young Indian stars have been given wildcards.

India has a third entry in the form of Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who will face Japan’s Hiroki Moriya. “I have worked with Som (Somdev Devvarman) for a couple of weeks now. And that has helped me a lot,” Pragnesh said.

Prajnesh revealed that the two of them are working only on general stuff. “Som has played at the top level and he knows what it takes to be there. Tactically he is very good and he understands my game as well, so it has been most helpful. He brings in a lot of intensity even to the practice session,” he said.

Qualifiers draw:

Saturday: Court 1 ( From 2.30pm)

1. Nicolas Kicker (ARG) v (WC) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND)

2. (WC) Yuki Bhambri v Marco Cecchinato (ITA)

3. Prajnesh Gunneswaran v Hiroki Moriya

Court 2: (From 2.30 pm)

1. Hyeon Chung (Kor) v Miljan Zekic (SRB)

2. Jurgen Melzer (AUT) v Steven Diez(CAN)

3. Jozef Kovalik(SVK) v Franko Skugor (CRO)

Court 3: (2.30pm)

1. Marco Trungelliti(Arg) v Alessandro Bega (ITA)

Court 4: (2.30pm)

Matteo Donati (ITA) v Federico Gaio (ITA)