ITF $25k tournament: Crawford to be top seed; Digvijay seeded seventh

Oliver Crawford will be the top seed in the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament being played at the Indore Tennis Club from Sunday.

Apart from the six spots for the qualifiers, the main draw also has vacancies for four lucky losers owing to the late withdrawal of players. | Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Oliver Crawford will be the top seed in the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament being played at the Indore Tennis Club from Sunday.

Crawford seeded No.1 in Delhi in the $15,000 event had lost in the semifinals last week, to Frenchman Florent Bax, who has pulled out of the circuit with an ankle injury.

The champion of the last event, Digvijay Pratap Singh has been seeded seventh and will play his first round against a qualifier.

The strengthened field owing to the enhanced prize money should pose a more difficult challenge for prominent Indian players like Niki Poonacha, Manish Sureshkumar, Sidharth Rawat and Nitin Kumar Sinha, apart from Digvijay.

Eight Indian players, Shivank Bhatnagar, Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta, Dalwinder Singh, VM Ranjeet, Faisal Qamar, Chirag Duhan, Bharath Kumaran and Manish Ganesh reached the third and final qualifying round.

Apart from the six spots for the qualifiers, the main draw also has vacancies for four lucky losers owing to the late withdrawal of players.

The results

Qualifying singles (second round): Kazuki Meshwaki (Jpn) bt Arjun Mahadevan 6-3, 6-0; Woobin Shin (Kor) bt Ajay malik 6-3, 6-1; Shivank Bhatngar bt Shahbaaz Khan 7-6(3), 6-3; Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta bt Kabir Hans 6-1, 3-1 (retired); Ryotaro Matsumura (Jpn) bt Arthav Neema 6-1, 6-3; Yunseok Jang (Kor) bt Anurag Agarwal 6-0, 6-2; Dalwinder Singh bt Tushar Madan 7-6(3), 6-3; VM Ranjeet bt Suraj Prabodh 7-6(3), 4-6, [10-8]; Faisal Qamar bt Oges Theyjo 6-2, 2-0 (retired); Chirag Duhan bt Lee Junhyun (Kor) 6-2, 6-4; Bharath Kumaran bt BR Nikshep 6-1, 6-7(50, [10-5]; Manish Ganesh bt Yash Chaurasia 4-6, 6-4, [10-5].

The seedings: 1. Oliver Crawford (USA), 2. Ben Patael (Isr), 3. Dominik Palan (Cze), 4. Manish Sureshkumar, 5. Sidharth Rawat, 6. Bekham Atlangeriev (Rus), 7. Digvijay Pratap Singh, 8. Nitin Kumar Sinha.