ITF Futures Tennis: Scott Griekspoor top seed

Manama : The top seeds and qualifiers for the Bahrain ITF Futures Tennis Tournament at the Bahrain Tennis Club in Juffair have been announced ahead of the event starting with qualifying rounds on March 26-27 and the main competition from March 28 until April 2. In the men’s singles, top seed is last year’s runner-up Scott Griekspoor of the Netherlands ranked 331 in the world with last year’s winner and fifth seed Tobias Simon ranked 623 back to defend his title.

The second and third seeds are also from the Netherlands, Lennert Van Der Linden (547) and Tallon Griekspoor (565).

Seeds four to eight are Yannick Maden (Germany, 596), Simon (623), Lorenzo Frigerio (Italy, 816), Kunal Arnold (India, 933) and Terri Groll (France, 949).

Bahrain will be represented in the main draw and qualifiers by Roy Boutagy, Kareem Abdulnabi, Hassan Abdulnabi, Mohammed Essam Abdul A’al, Ali Dawani, Hamad Abdul A’al, Yousif Dhaif, Ahmed Janahi, Aamar Al Shaikh, Yusuf Qaed, Abdulrahman Janahi and Ali Al Asfoor.

In the women’s singles, defending champion and second seed Fatma Al Nabhani of Oman ranked 308 is back in the fray to defend her title as is German Vivian Heisen ranked 603.

Top seed is Chinese Lu Jiajang ranked 207, with Indian Prerna Bhambri (401) third seed and Kazakhstan’s Kamila Kerimbayeva (409) fourth.

Seeds from fifth to eighth are Katharina Lehnert (Philippines, 441), Pia Konig (Austria, 448), Tereza Mihalikova (Slovakia, 501), Riya Bhatia (India, 577).

Bahrain-based players included are Croatian Frana Ugarkovic and Indian Kalpaka Pradip.

The tournament in its fifth edition is being held under the patronage of HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Representative of His Majesty the King for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and President of Bahrain Olympic Committee.

Event supporters are Bahrain Duty Free, Solidarity Holding and GPIC.