New Delhi: The non-availability of defending champions Vishnu Vardhan and Riya Bhatia means focus will be on juniors and fresh faces, when the Fenesta Open national tennis championship, begins at the RK Khanna tennis stadium here on Monday.

In the absence of Davis Cupper Vardhan, top seed Suraj R.Prabodh will lead the field in the hard court event. Former champions Vijay Kannan and Nitten Kirtanne too are part of the draw.

All eyes will be on lanky Tamil Nadu lad Dhakshineswar Suresh, who last year won the Under-16 national championship, besides Aryan Goveas and Paramveer Singh Bajwa in the men’s singles.

Zeel Desai is the top seed in the women’s draw and will fancy her chances of winning the title this week. With experienced Shweta Rana also in the mix as the third seed, it will be interesting to see how matches in early stages play out.

Others to watch out will be Mihika Yadav, Sai Samhita, Snehadevi S. Reddy and Mahak Jain.

Four-time winner at the Fenesta Open, Prerna Bhambri will also be seen in action along with former champion Rutuja Bhonsale.

The winners will get `3 lakh as prize money apart from `5 lakh assistance from the government and a wild card for an international event.

Khade enters main round
Maharashtra’s Arjun Khade, a wild card entry into the qualifiers, made the men’s singles main draw after beating Dhruv Sunish 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday.

Under 18 top seed Nitin Kumar Sinha from Bengal will join Khade in the men’s singles main the draw after beating P.C. Vignesh 6-4, 6-4.