World no. 195 Yuki Bhambri and No. 312 Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, the second and third best singles players in India after Somdev Devvarman, received wild cards into the singles draw of the Aircel Chennai Open.
Eighteen-year-old Brit Kyle Edmund (377), a two-time junior Grand Slam doubles champion (2012 US Open and 2013 French Open), was given the third wild card.
This will be his fourth wild card on the trot for the 21-year-old Yuki and for the left-handed Jeevan, who reached his career-best ranking of 305 in October, it will be his first foray into the main draw.
Doubles wild cardIn addition to its top-ranking player Jeevan, Tamil Nadu found representation in the form of a doubles wild card to the duo of Sriram Balaji and Ramkumar Ramanathan. The two will be teaming up for the first time ever.
The other doubles wild card also went to a pair which has not played together before — India’s Saketh Myneni and Russia’s Karen Khachanov.
“We are glad to award wild card entries to some very promising and exciting singles and doubles talents. Players such as Yuki, Jeevan, Sriram, Ramkumar and Saketh continue to show a lot of potential and represent the future of Indian tennis. Khachanov and Edmund have also been performing very well indeed,” said Karti P. Chidambaram, Chairman, Tournament Organising Committee and the AITA vice-president, in a released statement.
