Tennis Players from 25 countries to be seen in action at PMR Open ATP Challenger 100 Men’s International Tennis Championship

Pune, February 23: 2023 Players from 25 countries will be seen in action at the PMR Open ATP Challenger 100 Men’s International Tennis Championship organized by Maharashtra State Lawn tennis Association (MSLTA) at the Mhalunge Balewadi Tennis Stadium

The premier high Level ATP Challenger which is sponsored by Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (PMRDA) under a Five year agreement will be played from Sunday February 26 to Sunday March 5 2023 .The Pune Event is the third of a series of ATP Challenger 100 events held in India. The previous tournaments were held at Chennai and Bengaluru .

Addressing the Media Mr. Rahul Mahiwal (IAS) PMRDA Commissioner said that the PMR Challenger is another Feather on Cap of Pune Tennis Calendar , “ We at PMRDA are thrilled to support such a huge international event which goes a long way in promoting the image of the Pune Metropolis Region universally” .

“Providing international competition to Indian players and also promotion of Sports has been one of the main reasons for PMRDA getting involved and supporting this event: he added

The prize money for the event will be USD 130000 (Rs.1.06 crores). The winner will receive 100 ATP ranking points and USD 17650 (Rs.14.47 lakhs) and the runner up 60 ATP points and USD 10380 (Rs.8.5 lakhs) the first round loser receives USD1270 (Rs.1.04 lakhs). The qualifiers also receive an incentive of USD 380 (Rs.31,000/-).

Mr Prashant Sutar Chairman of MSLTA and the tournament director said there was a Challenger running successfully in the city for five years in a row previously , thus we were thinking of reviving the Challenger event as it is the most beneficial for Indian Players to gain valuable points .

Organizing the PMR Challenger event is a continuation of a grand vision of MSLTA for tennis development and promotion in Maharashtra , said Mr. Sutar

The Hon Secretary of MSLTA Sunder Iyer said that it was a proud moment for Pune to host another major tennis event within a gap of only a month and this augurs well for tennis not only in Maharashtra but India.

With The successful conduct of Tata Open Maharashtra jointly with the Government of Maharashtra over the last 5 years we have been able to convince the stakeholders to support the sport of tennis , we would like to thank Mr. Mahiwal and the Commissioner of Sports Mr. Suhas Divase for their Support to the event, he added .

Our players will benefit immensely with valuable ATP points thus improving their rankings. “India has been able to offer a record number of 700 ATP points to our players from January to March this year”. With players from 25 countries the competition is expected to be stiff and of high quality.

The main draw consists of 32 players – 23 direct acceptances, 3 wild cards, 6 qualifiers. Qualifying consists of 24 players with 4 wild cards.

21 years old 108 world ranked Tsen Cheun Hsin from Taipei will lead the tough field . Former winner in Pune at KPIT Challenger James Duckworth of Australia( ranked 137) 26 year old Sebastian Ofner of Austria( ranked 152) 27 year old Peniston Ryan of Great Britain(ranked159), Talented 19 year old Luca Nardi of Italy ( ranked 164), Cobolli, Flavio of Italy ( Ranked 172 ) are the probable seeds of the event

Mr Andrei Kornilov of Uzbekistan will be the ATP Supervisor for the event , while Sheetal Iyer will be the referee of the event which is hosted with the co-operation of the Dept of Sports and Youth Affairs Government of Maharashtra,

Other partners are Aryan Pumps , Dunlop (Official Equipment Partner ) , Enerzal (Energy Drink Partners) , Manipal Hospital ( Medical Partner) .

The timings of play will be from 10am onwards. Entry for spectators to witness the matches is free and we look forward to a great number of sports and tennis lovers to come to the stadium to witness the matches.

Following are The Probable Seeding (Singles)

1. Jason Kubler(AUS 79) , 2. Chun-Hsin Tseng, (TPE 108), 3, James Duckworth, (AUS 137) , 4. Sebastian Ofner, (AUT 152) , 5. Ryan Peniston, (GBR 159) ,6 . Luca Nardi, (ITA 164) , 7. Flavio Cobolli,(ITA 172), 8. Francesco Maestrelli (ITA 183 ).

Doubles

1 Marc Polmans, (AUS) / Max Purcell, (AUS) , 2. Arjun Kadhe, (IND) / Maximilian Neuchrist, (AUT) , 3 Petr Nouza, (CZE) / , Andrew Paulson (CZE) 4 Toshihide Matsui, (JPN) / Kaito Uesugi, (JPN)