Spain's Carlos Moya, a big hit at the Chennai Open, is all set to charm tennis fans in Mumbai as well. The former world number one and 1998 French Open champion has confirmed his partcipation for the $380,000 Mumbai ATP event that begins on September 25.
The tournament will be played at the newly-relaid courts at the Cricket Club of India.
In its very first year, the Mumbai event, has attracted a strong field. Spain's Tommy Roberdo, Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, Nicholas Kiefer of Germany and Chile's Fernando Gonzalez have all confirmed partcipation along with Moya and world number eight Mario Ancic.
"Carlos Moya is not ranked as high but he's a big star in India," said tournament director and former India Davis Cupper Gaurav Natekar.
Since the Bangkok Open is also scheduled in the same week, Asia's drawcard Paradorn Srichaphan will not be coming.
Along with the big guns in the singles event, India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes will lead the field in the doubles draw. Prakash Amritraj, Rohan Bopanna, Harsh Mankad and Karan Rastogi will contest for the three wild cards at the tournament.
"All the wild cards will definitely go to the Indians," said Natekar, "but we haven't decided the names yet. It will depend on the form and fitness of the player just before the event."
Natekar also confirmed that it will be an outdoor hard court event and not indoor, as listed by the official ATP site.
Bhupathi, who's company Globosport is bringing the event to India said in a statement, "The last 3 weeks have been an enormous challenge to all of us in terms of convincing the Global sports community as well as the best tennis players in the world that Mumbai is ready for action, that Mumbai is ready to be in the spotlight of the Global media."
