City to host KPIT–MSLTA ITF WTT Cup Mens tennis championships with strict Covid Norms from March 21

Pune , March 20, 2021 :  After the successful completion  of the $ 25000 Womens ITF championships last week , the city will host the as the  KPIT –MSLTA  ITF WTT Cup  $15000 Men’s tennis championships at  the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts in the city from March 21 to March 28. 

This tournament will be the second of the two ITF events which are being held in the city and sponsored by KPIT Technologies in association with Maharashtra State Lawn tennis Association (MSLTA) and the PMDTA  which was initialized  by Mr. Kishor Patil Co-Founder CEO and MD of KPIT Technologies Ltd and the VP of MSLTA and President of PMDTA  

 “ After a challenging Womens ITF event and the growing  Covid Pandemic , we will be facing another challenge to complete the Mens ITF event without INCIDENT. Our team has ensured strict  Covid protocols at the venue to ensure that the event goes off smoothly . The reason for the conduct of the event is to ensure Valuable ATP points for Indian players. We are very happy that the events were allotted to us and both MSLTA and Deccan Gymkhana Club  will leave no stone unturned to follow strict protocols ” , said Mr Kishor Patil .

We are happy to give a platform to Indian players and it’s truly heartwarming to see around 38 Indian  mens players get an opportunity to participate in the event,  in these difficult times, Mr. Patil added    

 Simon Carr IRL(549), Aidan Mchugh GBR(568), Jonathan Mridha SWE (590), Oliver Crawford   USA (604), winner of the singles titles in the two previous weeks at Lucknow and Indore  Zane Khan of USA are amongst the players from 11 countries namely France , Ireland , Great Britain , USA , Switzerland , Sweden , ITaly , CzechRepublic , Romania , Hungary   who will be seen in action at the event.

Sidharth Rawat (474)   , Manish Sureshkumar (675 ),  local lads Arjun Kadhe ( 677)  Aryan Goveas (863)  are the Indians who have got an entry into the main draw , Four Indian Players  Ganta Sai Karteek reddy , Karan Singh  , Dhruv Sunish and Atharva Sharma have been awarded the main draw wildcards in the singles .

Hon Sec of MSLTA and Tournament Director Sunder Iyer said that strict Covid regulations are  in place as per guidelines of the National , State and District Administration and the SOP of the International tennis Federation for the event and the matches will be held strictly  without spectators. 

We are ensuring proper sanitation and disinfectant processes thanks to city based Sujanil Industries who will be  giving all players and officials sanitisers during the week. We will be strictly enforcing Use of Masks, sanitisers and social distancing during the week . We have kept special areas for players so they will be segregated. 

Entry to the event will be strictly with accreditation and presentation of COVID Negative certificate. The live scoring of these matches will be available on  ITF Live scores app on the ITF Website.

The  Pune Leg is the third ITF  Mens event in India with the two previous legs being played at Lucknow and Indore . The Pune event will be followed by an ITF Men’s event at Delhi  

The qualifying matches will be played on March 21 and 22  , while main draw matches will be played from March 23 , the doubles finals will be held on 27 March , while the Singles finals will be held on March 28 .

Ashwin Girme will be the Jt Tournament Director  , while a committee comprising Mr. Vishwas Lokare , Shekar Sonsale , Abhishek Tamhane , Kaustubh Shah , Himanshu Gosavi , Jayant Kadhe has been formed for the smooth conduct of the event . Gold Badge referee Sheetal Iyer  has been appointed as the ITF supervisor of the event .