Yuki Bhambri to shoulder Indian Hopes

Local lad Yuki Bhambri will be among the title favourites when the third edition of the Delhi Open Challenger tournament begins at the RK Khanna Stadium here on Monday.

The Delhi lad enjoyed a fine run of form in the latter half of 2015 which saw him enter the top-100 in the men’s singles rankings for the first time in his career. The top seed will aim to carry on in the same vein in front of his home crowd.

With Somdev Devvarman and Ramkumar Rama-nathan deciding to give the tournament a miss, Yuki is the biggest Indian draw. This year though, has been a disappointing one for Yuki so far. He had to miss his very first tournament of the year, the Chennai Open, due to injury concerns.

He lost to Tomas Berdych in the Australian Open first round before crashing out in the opening rounds at his next two tournaments played on European indoor courts.

The 23-year-old faces Belgium’s Joris De Loore in the Delhi Open first round. His toughest test could be Stephane Robert, who is seeded third. Yuki was a finalist at this event last year and will have to defend his points in order to remain in the top 100.

Saketh Myneni is the other seeded Indian. The fourth seed is in good form and will start against Italy’s Alessandro Bega and could face second seed Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium in the semi-finals.

It was the Belgian who ended Myneni’s campaign in the quarter-finals of this event last year. With a relatively easy draw, Coppejans has a good chance to pocket his third Challenger title.

In the doubles event, Delhi boy Divij Sharan and Italy’s Flavio Cipolla are top seeds while Myneni and Sanam Singh are seeded fourth.

Four Indians — Adil kalyanpur, N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth, N. Sriram Balaji and Prajnesh Gunneswaran — were awarded a wild card each.