Yuki storms into main draw

Yuki Bhambri will, however, look at his qualification with a sense of irony as he has been drawn to face India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan in his opening round. The country’s other aspirant in the qualifying rounds Prajnesh Gunneswaran, however, couldn’t sustain his run and lost 6-7, 1-6 to Jozef Kovalik. Prajnesh rode on his powerful serve in the first set to keep pace with Kovalik but came apart in the second. “I had my chances in the first set,” Prajnesh said, shortly after his defeat. “I couldn’t take him and the momentum shifted in his favour,” he added. 

Meanwhile, India’s top singles players led by Saketh Myneni are looking to better their record at big events when they brush shoulders with some of the best in the business, including world number six Marin Cilic, in the main draw. 

Despite not having three-time winner Stan Wawrinka, it’s a rich field which will feature six top-50 players in the singles draw, including Cilic, who had a great 2016, his country-mate and last year’s finalist Borna Coric, Spaniards Roberta Bautista Agut and Albert Ramos-Vinolas. 

The onus is on the Indians to make their presence felt. It has been a while that both Myneni and local boy Ramkumar Ramanathan have been striving to make an impression on the Tour but mostly they have competed at the Challenger level. Only one Indian pair, N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan launching their challenge. They take on the Swdish duo of Johan Brunstrom and Andreas Siljestrom in a late match.