Stan Wawrinka, who had an amazing year, by his own admission, will be the star attraction when the 2016 Aircel Chennai Open tennis championships begin here on January 4.
The 30-year-old top-seeded Swiss, who will be playing in his eighth Chennai Open, will be hoping to perform a hat-trick of singles titles, having won it in 2014 and 2015.
South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, World No.12 and seeded two, will be making his debut in Chennai. As has been the case in the last few years, four of the top 25 players and nine in the top 50 in the world have confirmed their participation.
This time, the cut off for the main draw has been pegged at 94. Other regulars include Benoit Paire of France, Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Vasek Pospisil.
The Indian challenge will be led by Yuki Bhambri, who closed the year with a ranking of 91. It is likely that unlike the earlier years, the qualifying draw will be a 16-player affair.
In its 20th year in Chennai, the tournament, said Ashu Jindal, COO, IMG-Reliance, “will have the best of players, and with a refurbished stadium, I am sure the tennis fans will have a great time.”
Recalling the achievements of Indian players in the Open, M.A. Alagappan, President, Tamil Nadu Tennis Association, said Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had won a hat-trick of doubles titles here from 1997 to 1999 and then went on to became World No.1 pair. He also said how Somdev Devvarman made his first-ever ATP Tour final here in 2009.
C.B.N. Reddy, Secretary, TNTA, was also present on the occasion.
The players’ field (Read as Seeding, Player, Country, ATP ranking): 1, Stan Wawrinka, Switzerland, 4; 2, Kevin Anderson, South Africa, 12; 3, Benoit Paire, France, 19; 4, Roberto Bautista Agut, Spain, 25; 5, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Spain, 27; 6, Gilles Muller, Luxembourg, 38; 7, Vasek Pospisil, Canada, 39; 8, Borna Coric, Croatia, 44; 9, Aljaz Bedene, Great Britain, 45; 10, Lukas Rosol, Czech Republic, 55; 11, Andreas Haider-Maurer, Austria, 63; 12, Santiago Giraldo, Columbia, 70; 13, Nicolas Almagro, Spain. 72; 14, Lu Yen-hsun, Taipei, 74; 15, Marcel Granollers, Spain, 82; 16, Rajeev Ram, USA, 86; 17, Evgeny Donskoy, Russia, 88; 18, John Millman, Australia, 90; 19, Yuki Bhambri, India, 91; 20, Taro Daniel, Japan, 93; 21, Illya Marchenko, Ukraine, 94.
