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 ...