IOC set to call the shots in PSPB tennis

IOC, packed with the leading players of the country, including Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sumit Nagal, Rohan Bopanna, Divij Sharan, Riya Bhatia, Prarthana Thombare and Mahak Jain, looks set to dominate the 39th edition of the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) inter-unit tennis meet to be held at the DLTA Complex here from December 9 to 13.

ONGC has the country’s best woman player, Ankita Raina, who won a double crown in the $25,000 ITF women’s tournament at Solapur, but does not have a quality second woman player. ONGC has Vishnu Vardhan, V.M. Ranjeet and Vijay Kannan in the men’s event. Though it has Yuki Bhambri in its ranks, he may not compete as he is still recovering from a leg injury.

GAIL will have two strong players — Saketh Myneni and Vijay Sundar Prashanth. The women’s team has four-time National champion Prerna Bhambri and Snehadevi Reddy.

EIL, OIL and HPCL will be the other teams in the fray. Host BPCL has only nominated the veteran players.

On Monday, the men’s team quarterfinals will pit EIL against OIL and ONGC against HPCL.

IOC and GAIL have been given a bye and will play in the semifinals directly.

The veterans’ competition will also begin with three quarterfinals while defending champion OIL received a bye.