Dipika Pallikal starts her quest against a qualifier
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Indian duo of Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal have been presented with easy opening rounds at the year’s first World Series tournament – the $150, 000 Tournament of Champions at New York, scheduled from January 5-14, 2016.
While the 16th seeded Chinappa faces the 29th ranked Egyptian wildcard Kanzy El Defrawy, the 13th seeded Pallikal takes on a qualifier in the first round. The draw gets tougher from there for both as Joshna is likely to meet the fifth seed Omneya Abdel Kawy next while Dipika has seventh seed Nour El Sherbini waiting for her.
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India men’s No. 1 Saurav Ghosal is not playing at this tournament as he continues to recuperate from a fatigue fracture sustained at the Hong Kong Open in December.
Meanwhile, four Indians will be vying for a main draw berth at the Tournament of Champions. In men’s qualifying, former national champion Harinderpal Sandhu has a tough first round as he is up against the seventh seed and World No. 24 Alfredo Avila who won two PSA titles in 2015.
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The other Indians in men’s qualifying do not have any easy draw either. The USA-based pair of Ramit Tandon and Supreet Singh square off against third seed Ali Farag and top seed Adrian Waller respectively.
In women’s qualifying, 19-year-old Tanvi Khanna – ranked 192nd – will begin her quest against the 12th seed and World No. 42 Fiona Moverly of England.
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About the author
Sudeshna Banerjee
Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.
Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.
Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.
Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.
When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.
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