World No 8 Mario Ancic of Croatia has confirmed participation in the US $380,000 ATP Tour event, to be held at the newly-laid synthetic tennis courts of the Cricket Club of India, Mumbai, in September.
"Mario Ancic has confirmed to take part already and we are talking to a couple of more top players. But things would be clearer when the deadline for sending in entries (six weeks before its commencement) approaches," Tournament director Gaurav Natekar informed on Tuesday.
"Ancic had made it to the quarter-finals of both the French Open and Wimbledon tournaments this season and on both occasions had lost to (world number one) Roger Federer," Natekar said.
The 22-year-old, 6-foot, 5-inch Croatian has won two singles titles since turning pro in 2001 and has a career-high world ranking of No 7 to his credit. He has a career singles win-loss record of 133-93.
Natekar, a batch mate of Davis Cup hero Leander Paes at the Brittania-Amritaraj Tennis Academy in his formative years and son of badminton ace Nandu, said six newly-laid synthetic hard courts have been laid out for the event and all matches would be played under lights.
The tournament commences on September 25.
"We have not yet decided on the title sponsors for the tournament," he added.
