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Journalism of Courage
November 21: World no. 108 Leander Paes heads the ATP rankings in the field for the $50,000 Challenger tennis tournament to be held at the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) courts, Mumbai, from November 24-29.Uzbekistan’s Oleg Ogorodov (ranked 135) and Russia’s Andrei Merinov follows Paes.
India’s Mahesh Bhupathi has also got a direct entry with a ranking of ATP 231. Paes and Bhupathi will be joined by four other Indians — Davis Cuppers Sandeep Kirtane and Nitin Kirtane, National Hardcourt champion Vasudev Reddy and Harsh Mankad — who have all been given wild cards.
The tournament, sponsored by The Famous Grouse, has a draw of 32 — 22 direct entries, four wild cards, four qualifiers and two special exempts.
Following are the direct entrants (country and ranking in parenthesis): 1 Leander Paes (India, 108), 2 Oleg Ogorodov (Uzbekistan, 135), 3 Andrei Merinov (Russia, 151), 4 Eyal Erlich (Israel, 163), 5 Raviv Weidenfeld (Israel, 185), 6 Orlin Stanoytchev (Bulgaria, 193), 7 Frederic Fontang (France, 198), 8 Daniele Musa (Italy, 207), 9 Eyal Ran (Israel, 208), 10 Rainer Falenti (Austria, 211), 11 Martijn Belgraver (Netherlands, 224), 12 Gerald Mandl (Austria, 229), 13 Mahesh Bhupathi (India, 231), 14 Julien Chauvin (France, 236), 15 Andrei Stoliarov (Russia, 248), 16 Charles Auffray (France, 249), 17 Goichi Motomura (Japan, 251), 18 Emanuel Couto (Portugal, 263), 19 Gabrio Castrichella (Italy, 267), 20 Joao Cunha-Silva (Portugal, 274), 21 Martin Lee (Great Britain, 282), 22 David Nainkin (South Africa, 284).y
