In a blow to the city's tennis lovers, France's Caroline Garcia, who was expected to be the top seed, and Belgium's Elise Mertens have withdrawn from the WTA Chennai Open, the organisers announced on Friday. (More Tennis News)
Indian No.2 Karman Kaur Thandi received the third wild card and would join the country's top player Ankita Raina and former US Open finalist Eugenie Bouchard (Canada) in thꦛe singles maܫin draw.
W𝔉ith the main draw set to get underway at the SDAT Tennis Stadium on Monday, Garcia, ranked No 17 in the world prior to the US Open, had to pull out of the event due to scheduling challenges, a release from the organisers said.
The Frenchwoman reached the semi-finals of the US Open 🙈before going down to Tunisian Ons Jabeur in straight sets on Thursday.
Garcia's decision to withdraw would mean that American Alison Riske-Amritraj, ranked ✃29 before the start of the US Open,ꦇ is likely to be the top-seed in the singles.
Mertens, a former world No 12 and a US Open semi-finalist, has pulled out due to injury, the release sai🧜d. The Belgian lost in the first round of the women's singles at the US Open and pulled ou💯t of her subsequent doubles first round match due to injury.
Tournament Director Hiten 🌊Joshi said he was disappointed with the withdrawal of the two players but hoped to see them in India in ꦡthe near future.
"We are very disappointed that Caroline and Elise have had to withdraw from the tournament. We wish them all the best for the rest of their season and hope they ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚcome to play in Chennai very soon," he said.
Despite their pull-out, Joshi said the to🃏urnament had some qꦡuality players and the fans could look forward to interesting action.
As a result of the withdra💯wals of Garcia and Mertens, Canadian Carol Zhao and Greece's Despina Papamichail have moved into the main draw.
Five Indians in qualifying draw
Five Indian pꦬlayers will be trying their🗹 luck in the qualifying rounds for the WTA 250 event which will begin on Saturday.
The Indians in the fray ar☂e: Rutuja Bhosale, Riya Bhatia, Sowjanya Bavisetti, Sai Chamarthi and Lakshmi Prabha Arunkumar.
They would be aiming to join compatriots Ankita Rai🐠na and Karman Kaur Thandi in the mai🎐n draw.
India's No. 3 ranked singles player Rutu🦋ja Bhosale will take on 12th seed En-Shuo Liang, No. 4 Riya Bhatia will battle against sixth seed Justina Mikulskyte and the country's No. 5 Sowjanya Bavisetti will meet 11th seed Kyoka Okamura in the first round of the 24-player qualifying draw.
Two Tamil Nadu players -- Sai Chamarthi and Lakshmi Prabha Arunkumar -- would also be seen in action. Chamarthi would run into second seed Nao Hibino ꧒while 16-year-old Lakshmi Pr👍abha would face top seed Yuki Naito.
P𝄹layers need to ౠwin two qualifying matches to secure one of six qualifying spots in the main draw.
