Pune Jan 30 PTI Emerging Italian star Lorenzo Musetti on Sunday said he is keen to make his mark in his debut appearance at the Tata Open Maharashtra tennis tournament which begins here on Monday The 19-year-old second seed will start as one of the title contenders in the mens singles event in the fourth edition of South Asias only ATP 250 event at the Balewadi Stadium here Im here to win matches I will try to go as far as I can and get the confidence that I used to have Musetti said during a virtual press conference on Sunday He is likely to face strong competition from top players like World No 15 Aslan Karatsev and defending champion Jiri Vesely Musetti suffered first-round defeats at the season opener Adelaide 1 event and Australian Open I played two good matches with two really great opponents They showed they were playing best tennis and both the matches were close he said A Roger Federer fan Musetti is one of the few players in the world with a strong single-handed backhand and he said it came naturally Musetti had an impressive 2021 wherein he broke into the top-100 made Grand Slam debut and had two sets lead against the World No 1 Novak Djokovic in a match at the French Open but retired in the fifth set He rated that match as one of the best of his career It helped me to understand a lot of things like I can be on that level and can reach there with my game It was helpful especially for a young player who is coming on the tour I hope to reach that level again and to play a lot of matches like that one Musetti concluded The tournament will continue till February 6 PTI PDS PDS BS BS

Pune Jan 29 PTI The Indian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan was on Saturday seeded second in the mens doubles event of the Tata Open Maharashtra beginning January 31 here Bopanna and Ramkumar who won the title in Adelaide before the Australian Open will open their campaign against the experienced American pair of Jamie Cerretani and Nicolas Monroe The Aussie duo of Luke Saville and John-Patrick Smith has been given the top billing Apart from Bopanna and Ramkumar two more Indian pairs will be seen in action in the doubles with Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan receiving the wild cards along with local boy Arjun Kadhe and Purav Raja Four Indians starting in the singles main draw have been handed a comparatively tricky draw as they will face tough competitions against the higher ranked opponents in their respective opening round matches Ramkumar will square off against eighth seed Stefano Travaglia while Yuki will be up against Slovakias Jozef Kovalik Kadhe will begin his campaign against former World No 28 Joao Sousa while Prajnesh Gunneswaran will face fifth-seeded Daniel Altamaier in the opening round Top seed Aslan Karatsev second seed Lorenzo Musetti third seed Gianluca Mager and defending champion Jiri Vesely 4 have received byes in the singles opening round In the qualifying singles Mukund Sasikumar who made his ATP main draw debut at the last edition here and Manish Sureshkumar have received wildcards Sureshkumar will kickstart his campaign against Czech player Kopriva Vit and Sasikumar will play Celikbilek Altug of Turkey who made his Grand Slam debut at 2021 French Open The qualifying matches will begin on Sunday PTI AT AT KHS KHS

New Delhi Jan 25 PTI The breach in bio-bubble of the Indian team at the Asian Cup football event has put the organisers of the Tata Open Maharashtra under pressure but they are determined to pull off the ATP tournament set to begin in Pune from January 31 The Indian womens team was forced out of the prestigious football tournament being held in Maharashtra as the COVID-19 hit team could not field the required players on the field against Chinese Taipei These are tough times but we will make it happen Our event is also happening in the same state We have substantially cut down the workforce as well Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association MSLTA secretary Sunder Iyer said during a virtual interaction Even we wont have the ball kids this time since they cant fulfil the condition of double-vaccination We will have ball-men this year The players cant have food inside the stadium they have to go back to their hotel We are not even taking the players on the road for travel they will enter the stadium from the backdoor of the adjacent hotel wall We are doing everything that can be done to make it happen smoothly said Iyer who is also AITA Joint Secretary The MSLTA official said this year 250 odd people will work inside the stadium while the number was above 400 in the last edition Iyer said they will try to have both fans and media inside the stadium over the weekend By that time only 20 players will be left in the tournament and there should be space to accommodate a few Once the tournament happens it will be a statement that we can do it under such tough circumstances Everyone has to undergo RAT every day and once somone leaves a bio-bubble he wont be allowed back until he returns a negative RTPCR report he said PTI AT AT BS BS