Senior tennis nationals from November 3 to 9

Mumbai, Oct 23 (UNI) Top Indian senior players will be locking horns in the Rs five lakh GVK AISTA Senior National Ranking Tennis Tournament, which will be held from November 3 to 9 at the Prac Tennis Courts at Hansraj Morarji Public School, Andheri here. The event is being sponsored by G V Krishna Reddy President, All India Senior Tennis Association (AISTA), it was announced at a media briefing here today.

This is the second time such a tournament is being organised in Mumbai after the successful conduct of similar events in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Delhi.

The players have been divided into three categories i.e. Men 45+, Men 55+ and Men 65+ and the singles winners stand to gain Rs 17,000 in each category. The doubles winners in each category will win Rs 9,000.

The singles main draw in each category will have 32 entries with 20 direct acceptances, eight qualifiers and four wild cards. The doubles main draw will be for 16 entries with 10 direct acceptances, four qualifiers and two wild cards. The 45+ category has received 45 entries for the qualifying rounds, while the +55 category has received 51, with 42 players registering for the qualifying rounds in the +65 category, it was further announced.

Leading the group in the 45+ category is AP's R E Sudarshan Rao, who heads the rankings with 210 AISTA points. He is followed by statemate V Srinivasa Reddy, Gujarat's Yogesh Shah and AP's R V Rama Raju. And in the 55+ category, AP's V Ram Mohan Rao leads the standings with 213 points, followed by Rajendra Chetwal from Delhi and R Sethu from Tamil Nadu.

While in the 65+ category, Maharashtra's S Parekh is the top seed with 190 points, with Maharashtra's S Parekh heading the rankings in the 65+ category, followed by C Radhakrishnan of TN and Ramesh Gautam of UP.

Following are the Seedings (Top 5): (45+ Singles): R E Sudarshan Rao (AP); V Srinivasa Reddy (AP); Yogesh Shah (Gujrat); Mayur Vasant (Mah); Chetan Desai (Mah).

(55+ Singles): V Ram Mohan Rao (AP); T A P N Rao (AP); K Radhakrishna Murthy (AP); C R Gangadharan (Del); A Rambabu (AP).

(65+ Singles): S Parekh (Mah); C Radhakrishnan (TN); Ramesh Gautam (UP); H D Ballal (Kar); C B Raju (AP).

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