Bengaluru Open: Bhambri to face Sriram Balaji in first round

Slovenian Blaz Kavcic is the top seed at the Bengaluru Open $100,000 Challenger tennis tournament. Radu Albot, the Moldovan World No. 86, who was expected to be a big attraction, has pulled out owing to an injury.

Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George unveiling the Trophy at the draw ceremony of Bengaluru Open Challenger along with players Suraj Prabodh and Vishnu Vardhan, and Sunil Yajaman of KSLTA on Saturday.

Slovenian Blaz Kavcic is the top seed at the Bengaluru Open $100,000 Challenger tennis tournament. The current World No. 102, who had an early exit in the Pune Challenger, will open against Bosnia & Herzegovina's Tomislav Brkic (No. 248). At Saturday's draw ceremony, held in the presence of Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George, it was also decided that India's top-ranked singles player Yuki Bhambri, fresh after his title win in Pune, will take on fellow Indian Sriram Balaji in the first round. Fifth seed Ramkumar Ramanathan will meet Frenchman Hugo Grenier, ranked nearly 300 places below him. Read: Mumbai Open will be a learning experience for the Indians

Radu Albot, the Moldovan World No. 86, who was expected to be a big attraction, has pulled out owing to an injury. As a result, Sumit Nagal, who was granted a wildcard earlier, moved into the main draw.  Prajnesh Gunneswaran will get a repeat match against the sixth-seeded American Evan King who he lost to in the first round in Pune. Elsewhere in a battle between wildcards, Saketh Myneni, following a semifinal showing in Pune, will play Dalwinder Singh, the National tennis champion. The fourth and final wildcard was given to Vishnu Vardhan, who will be challenged by Spainiard Mario Vilella Martinez. Meanwhile after two rounds of qualifying on Saturday, Vijay Sundar Prashanth and Sidharth Rawat were the lone Indians to make it to the final phase which will be held on Sunday.

The results: Qualifying (Second round): Antoine Escoffier bt Chandril Sood 6-1, 6-1; Borna Gojo bt Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam 6-3, 6-4; Sidharth Rawat bt Kunal Anand 6-2, 6-4; Timur Khabibulin bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 6-4; Naoki Nakagawa bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma 6-4, 6-3; Matej Sabanov bt Lakshit Sood 6-4, 6-1; Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Shahbaaz Khan 6-2, 6-1; Shalva Dzhanashia bt Anvit Bendre 6-1, 6-2. (First round): Abhinav Sanjeev bt Ivan Sabanov 6-1, 6-4; Anand bt Vishal Punna 6-2, 6-1; Sinha bt Alexey Kedryuk 6-1, 6-2; Kaza Vinayak w/o V.M. Ranjeet; Lakshit bt Milan Radojkovic 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Shahbaaz bt Dakshineshwar Suresh 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-6 (3); Anvit bt Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.