Chennai, Jan 18 (PTI) Sasikumar Mukund was on Thursday revealed as the highest ranked Indian for the third edition of the ITF Men's 25K Futures to be held here from January 22-28.

The organisers have increased the total prize money to USD 25,000 along with additional ATP points for both singles and doubles.

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Six Indians have been granted direct entry into the main draw, with Mukund (ATP ranking 556) leading the pack which also has SD Prajwal Dev (616), Manish Sureshkumar (924), Karan Singh (ITF ranking 795) and Aryan Shah (ITF ranking 1,242).

Great Britain's Oliver Crawford (215) is the top seed while the former world No 17 Bernard Tomic from Australia will be the highlight ot the tournament, seeded third.

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"It's an opportunity for Indian players to get points. We are planning to conduct more such tournaments, as it serves as the stepping stone. And, unless you collect more points, you can't participate in the larger tournaments," AITA Joint Secretary Premkumar Karra told PTI during the event launch on Thursday.

The competition will be organised at the Gandhinagar Club.

The singles winner will receive a prize money of USD 3,600 and the runner-up will get USD 2,120. The doubles winners receive USD 1,550, while the runners-up get USD 900.

The ATP points offered to the winner will be 25 whereas the runner-up will get 16.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)