Prakash to lead Indian challenge

New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) Davis cupper Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna will spearhead the Indian challenge in the US 50,000 dollars SAIL Open tennis starting here from May 12 with Chinese Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu as the top seed.

Three other Indians - Harsh Mankhad, Ashutosh Singh and Yuki Bhambri along with Kuwait's Mhd Ghareeb - have been given wild card entry.

Former National Champion Sunil Kumar Sipaeya will battle it out for the main draw from the qualifiers.

While anouncing the seedings and the draw, the organisers said, ''the SAIL Open is one of the several ATP challengers which the All Indian Tennis Federation (AITF) will be holding to prepare the team for the Commonwealth Games.'' The winner of the SAIL Open will earn US 7200 dollars plus 55 ATP ranking points.

The seedings: 1 Yen Haun LU (Chinese Taipei), 2 Gilles Muller (Luxemberg), 3 Kristian Pless (Denmark), 4 Go Soeda (Japan), 5 Alun Jones(Aus), 6 Aisem-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak), 7 Brendan Evans(USA), 8 Alexandra Kudryavtsev (Russia).

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