Prajnesh seeded fourth at Bengaluru Open, to clash with Nedelko

In-form Prajnesh Gunneswaran was on Saturday seeded fourth at the USD 150,000 Bengaluru Open, where he will open his campaign against Russia's Ivan Nedelko.

The left-handed Indian Davis Cupper is ranked 141st while Nedelko is ranked 123 places below him.

Radu Albot of Moldova, who is ranked No. 100, will be the top seed and will clash with a qualifier.

In an interesting first round contest, the finalists of the previous edition, defending champion Sumit Nagal and seventh seed Jay Clarke will clash against each other in their tournament-opener.

Nagal, who has been struggling for good results this season, has been awarded a wild card by the organisers.

Argentinian Marco Trungelliti who is ranked 121st is seeded second while Elias Yemer of Sweden is seeded third.

Australian Marc Polsman has is seeded fifth while Quentin Halys of France is seeded sixth. Flip Peliwo of Canada is the last seed at No.8.

The other Indian players to get a direct through wild cards Adil Kalyanpuri and Saketh Myneni will face off with each other in their first round.

Suraj Prabodh faces sixth seed Quentin Halys.

Meanwhile, as many as five Indians including national champion Siddharth Vishwakarma, nationals runner-up Arjun Kadhe, Ranjeet Murugesan, Mukund Sasikumar and Aryan Goveas advanced to the second round of the qualifying event.

Khumoyun Sultanov of Uzbekistan created a flutter when he stunned the second seed Liam Broady of Britain in straight sets 6-3 7-5 to move into the second round.