Paire, Berankis, Travaglia, Kwon lead an extremely weak draw in Pune

The ATP250 in Pune is about to start with not much glory. In fact, the event received a lot of critics for its weak field. The only top player that will take part in the competition is Benoit Paire that will be soon ranked no.19 and he crashed out as early as in the 2nd round at the Australian Open. The Frenchman decided not to play this week in Montpellier as he didn’t enjoy a great relationship with the local fans last year. The other top seeds didn’t do any better than Benoit in the first slam of the year as Berankis also lost in the second round while Travaglia and Kwon lost in the opener.

The organization of this event was not helped by the fact that the ATP250 in Montpellier that is taking place also this week has attracted big names such as Gael Monfils, David Goffin, Denis Shapovalov, and Grigor Dimitrov.

The defending champion is Kevin Anderson that won’t be able to defend his title.

World #98 Gerasimov is seeded in Pune, an ATP event that suffered with the ATP Cup. Tough to imagine a weaker field all year pic.twitter.com/WNlGvMPLO8

— José Morgado (@josemorgado) February 1, 2020

The ATP 250 tournament in Pune this week resembles a @ATPChallenger 125 level tournament! Benoit Paire is the number 1 seed this week ranked #19, then the number 2 seed is Richard Berankis at #73. Only 7 top 100 players. May as well give Paire the title now. Who is your picks?

— DailyTennisTips 🎾 (@ChrisSmith37) February 2, 2020

Name a more worse atp 250 field 😂 #Pune #Atp250 #Tennis #India #Paire #Karlovic #Berankis pic.twitter.com/GVuO43EMhN

— luukvangendt (@luukvangendt) February 1, 2020

Here the draw.

Benoit Paire’s ranking and performance in 2020

Ranked no.21, Benoit played his last match on the 22^nd of January when he surrendered to Marin Cilic 6-2 6-7⁶ 3-6 6-1 7-6³ in the 2^nd round of the Australian Open.

Benoit Paire’s best performance of this season was getting to the final in Auckland.

Richard Berankis’s ranking and performance in 2020

At the moment ranked no.69, the Lithuanian played his last match on the 22^nd of January when he lost to Sam Querrey 7-6² 4-6 6-4 6-4 in the 2^nd round of the Australian Open.

Benoit Paire and Richard Berankis have never played each other.

Stefano Travaglia’s ranking and performance in 2020

Ranked world no.74 (career-high), Travaglia played his last match on the 21^st of January when he lost to Christian Garin 6-4 6-3 6-4 in the 1^st round in Australian Open.

Stefano Travaglia’s most significant result of the year was reaching the final of the Bendigo Challenger.

Soon-Woo Kwon’s ranking and performance in 2020

Currently the world no.87, Soon-Woo played his last match on the 21^st of January when he was defeated by Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-7⁵ 6-4 7-5 3-6 6-3 in the 1^st round of the Australian Open.

Stefano Travaglia and Soon-Woo Kwon have never played each other.