Olympian Vishnu Vardhan among top Indians for ITF UP Open

The former Olympian will be one of the notable names among the 21 Indians in fray at the USD 15,000 UP Open to be held in Lucknow from Sunday.

While 26 players made it to the qualifying draw on their ranking strength, six other players namely including Vishnu Vardhan, were awarded the wildcard.

Lucknow will be hosting an ITF USD 15,000 UP Open from Sunday with Olympian Vishnu Vardhan being one of the notable names among the 21 Indians in fray.

The tournament will be held at the Vaijyant Khand Mini Stadium till March 7.

While 26 players made it to the qualifying draw on their ranking strength, six other players namely include Ashutosh Tiwari , Anand Prakash, Arnav Alok Goyal (all from UP), Vishnu Vardhan, Ajay Malik and Lakshit Sood were awarded the wildcard.

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After Lucknow, the men's ITF circuit will move to Indore, Pune and Delhi providing unheralded Indians to get some points in their kitty after having missed out on an entire year due to COVID-19 related restrictions.

Eight players from the qualifying round which will be played over the next two days will make it to the main draw.

"We have made all arrangements following the SOP of the International Tennis Federation, AITA and the UP government directives on Covid Management," the official said.

UPTA president Navneet Sehgal on Saturday personally visited the tournament site to inspect the arrangements for this international event and expressed satisfaction over the arrangements, Agarwal said.

ITF gold Badge Referee Sheetal Iyer has been appointed as the ITF referee of the event, while ITF white badge umpires Parikshit Sharma and Syed Akram will be the umpires for the event.