Ankita Raina, currently ranked 255th in the world, would defend her singles title as the sole Indian to get a direct entry into the main draw of the USD 25,000 NECC-ITF women's tennis tournament to be played at Deccan Gymkhana here from December 21 to 26.
Ankita, whose last ITF tour title came at the same tournament last year, is expected to be seeded third behind China's Jia-Jing Lu and Russia's Polina Leykina, who are ranked 213 and 227, respectively.
Both Lu and Leykina have listed the Pune event as second on their priority list as per the ITF rules and both have won three titles each this year.
Lu has won all three titles on hard courts, just the same surface as at Deccan Gymkhana, the USD 25,000 title in Balikpapan, Indonesia, the USD 15,000 title in Bangkok and USD 10,000 one in Antalya, Turkey.
Leykina has two titles on clay this year and one on hard court. She triumphed in Clermont-Ferrand in France, a USD 25,000 event on hard court. Her other titles came at St Petersburg (USD 25,000) and Knokke (USD 10,000) in Belgium.
"This is the oldest women's tournament in India and also the longest running (15th successive year) event. We are proud to be hosting it once again, and we are delighted with the field that we have got," said Nitin Joshi, the Tournament Director.
The qualifying rounds would be played on December 19 and 20.
Top entries (with world rankings): 1. Jia-Jing Lu (Chn) 213, 2. Polina Leykina (Rus) 227, 3. Ankita Raina (Ind) 255, 4. Fiona Ferro (Fra) 256, 5. Valeriya Strakhova (Ukr) 269, 6. Valentyna Ivakhnenko (Rus) 271, 7. Barbara Haas (Aut) 273, 8. Nina Stojanovic (Srb) 286, 9. Deniz Khazaniuk (Isr) 306, 10. Doroteja Eric (Srb) 322, 11. Georgina Garcia-Perez (Esp) 323, 12. Nastja Kolar (Slo) 343, 13. Chieh-Yu Hsu (Tpe) 349, 14. Tadeja Majeric (Slo) 356, 15. Anastasia Pribylova (Rus) 360, 16. Viktoria Kamenskaya (Rus) 363, 17. Anastasiya Vasylyeva (Ukr) 413, 18. Anna Morgina (Rus) 419.
