Former World No. 10 Lucas Pouille and last year’s champion Chun-hsin Tseng will be one of the stars of attractions in Bangalore Open 2023 ATP challenger tennis event, scheduled from February 20 to 26.
The fifth edition of the annual tennis tournament will be held at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) Stadium in Bengaluru.
Lucas Pouille is best remembered for stunning Spanish ace Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the 2016 US Open. The Frenchman reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2019 and played in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon and the US Open in 2016. The 28-year-old tennis player has won five ATP Tour titles in his career.
Lucas Pouille is ranked 334th in the latest ATP singles ranking.
Pouille and world No. 110 Tseng will enter the 32-player singles main draw. In addition to the 20 direct entries, the main event will also have three wildcards, six qualifiers and three special exceptions.
Chun-hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei, 21, on the other hand, won the 2022 Bengaluru Open men’s singles title after defeating Born Gojo in the final. Last year, two parallel Challenger competitions were held in Bengaluru.
Former world No. 39 Mikhail Kukushkin and 2020 Bengaluru Open champion James Duckworth, who was once ranked world No. 46, will be among the other top players at the ATP Challenger meet.
Briton Ryan Peniston and Czech youngster Dalibor Svrcina will also be in the singles main draw.
Peniston made headlines last year when he shocked then world No. 5 Casper Ruud in straight sets in his ATP main draw debut at the Queen’s Club Championships. Svrcina, 20, made his Grand Slam debut in Australia earlier this month.
Dimitar Kuzmanov, who finished second in the Bengaluru Open 2 last year, will be fighting for the title when he returns to the city.
The 2023 Bengaluru Open qualifiers will be played on February 19 and 20, with the main matches starting on February 20.
