Prajwal gets wild card; Wimbledon champ Purcell leads Bengaluru Open doubles field

Bengaluru, Feb 15 (PTI) Local star SD Prajwal Dev was on Wednesday expectedly handed a wild card into the singles main draw while Max Purcell, the one half of the reigning Wimbledon champion pair, will spearhead the doubles field at the Bengaluru Open, starting February 20.

The No. 1 Karnataka tennis player, Dev became the second Indian to get wild card after Sumit Nagal at the prestigious ATP Challenger event, which will be held at the KSLTA Stadium.

“It’s always great to see Indian presence at the Bengaluru Open. This is our tournament and a platform for Indian players. We have always supported and promoted Indian talent through this event and Prajwal is an outstanding player,” said Sunil Yajaman, the Tournament Director.

“I’m equally delighted to see six Indian names in the doubles draw which also features Wimbledon champion.”

Talking about the opportunity, the Mysuru-born player said: “Being a local lad, it is the most important tournament for me personally. I would like to thank KSLTA and the organisers for giving me this opportunity. The challengers event is very important. I hope I and the rest of other Indian players make the most of this opportunity.”

In a highly competitive doubles field, Purcell, who had won Wimbledon title with Matthew Ebden, will partner with Marc Polmans.

The in-form Australian duo had a great start to the year, winning the Challenger title in Burnie, Australia earlier this month.

The two-time champion Ramkumar Ramanathan will lead a strong Indian presence in the doubles main draw which consist of two all-Indian pairs in Purav Raja-Divij Sharan and Anirudh Chandrasekar-N Vijay Sundar Prashanth.

Ramkumar, who has partnered with Italian Francesco Maestrelli, lifted the title of this tournament in 2022 and 2020 while playing along with Saketh Myneni and Raja respectively.

Another Indian Arjun Kadhe will also battle it out for the title along with his Austrian partner Maximilian Neuchrist.

The singles qualifiers will begin on February 19 while the main draw will begin on February 20.