Sport - Tennis

Tough ask for Indians

NEW DELHI: It will be a tough task for Vijay Kannan and company to continue the Indian domination from Chennai when the ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament kicks off at the DLTA Complex here on Monday.

Brought up on the clay courts of Chennai, it was no surprise that Vijay Kannan and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan stole the show at their backyard, but the synthetic courts here may be more to the liking of their friends from Pakistan and China.

With Aqeel Khan from Pakistan thirsting to assert himself and a couple of formidable Chinese Davis Cuppers, Wang Yu (jr.) and Sun Peng, it will be difficult for any Indian to grab the winner’s booty of 18 ATP points.

Yet, it will be another good opportunity for players like Vivek Shokeen, Aditya Madkekar, Navdeep Singh, Ashutosh Singh, Purav Raja not to forget the youngsters like Sriram Balji and Yuki Bhambri.

Balaji starts against the top-seeded Aqeel Khan on Monday. A whole lot of players, including the 15-year-old Yuki start against qualifiers, and that may be a difficult exercise as the qualifiers have hardened themselves, winning three matches in two days in humid conditions.

One of the best juniors in the country, Akash Wagh lost in the first round of the qualifying event in which he was seeded No.1.

The seedings: 1. Aqeel Khan (Pak), 2. Wang Yu jr. (Chn), 3. Vijay Kannan, 4. Sun Peng (Chn), 5. Aditya Madkekar, 6. Navdeep Singh, 7. Vivek Shokeen and 8. Tatsuma Ito (Jpn).