Vishwakarma, Poonacha lead field

National men's champion Siddharth Vishwakarma and ATP-ranked Niki Poonacha will lead the field at the USD 3000 RBLATT Asian ranking men's tennis championships commencing here on April 22.

The qualifying rounds are to be held on Saturday and Sunday, a media release said on Friday.

The event will be the first event of the Asian Tennis Tour (ATT) launched by the Asian Tennis Federation to help safeguard the interest of the players in the region, in the wake of the uncertainties surrounding the professional Tour.

"The recently-launched ITF World Tennis Tour, the cap in ATP/WTA points at the lower level tournaments along with reduced number of professional tournaments in India at the lower end, are all quite disruptive changes, filled with uncertainties and doubts about the future of our sport and the new ATT circuit will help our young tennis players immensely," said Sunder Iyer, secretary of the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association.

Tournament Director D S Rama Rao said the first event would have only singles with a main draw of 32 and qualifying draw of 64.

The champion will get 50, 75 and 100 points in the ATT international events. The points will also be converted into AITA points simultaneously.

The main draw features 16 direct entries, 4 entries reserved for Under 23 players and 4 entries reserved for Under 18 players.

Besides, there will be four wild cards and as many qualifying spots for the event.

The winner of the event will get a cheque of Rs 31,000, while the runners up will get Rs 20,000.

Seedings: 1 Niki Poonacha, 2 Jatin Dahiya, 3 Siddarth Vishwakarma, 4 Shahbaaz Khan, 5 Vasisht Cheruku, 6 Chandril Sood, 7 Tejas Chaukulkar, 8 Prithvi Sekhar.