The Indian wild-card entrants did not have the luck of the draw. All three were drawn against top-10 players at the US$ 380,000 Kingfisher Airlines Open Mumbai ATP tournament, starting in Mumbai on September 25.
India's No.1 Rohan Bopanna was drawn against world No 73 Wesley Moodie of South Africa, while Karan Rastogi will take on Bjorn Phau of Germany, ranked No 66.
Maharashtra youngster Akash Wagh is happy to face Russia's fourth seed Dmitry Tursunov in the first round.
"I wanted to play a seeded player in the opening round," said the 16-year-old. "It's amazing to play such a top-class player."
Top seeds Tommy Robredo of Spain and Mario Ancic meanwhile should have an easy run in the first two rounds.
Robredo, who reached a career-high ranking of five in August, will face Austria's Alexander Peya in the opener. He could meet compatriot and fifth seed Carlos Moya in the quarter-finals.
Croatia's Ancic will play world No 121 Igor Kunitsyn in the first round.
Earlier, the field got depleted as five of the top players withdrew.
Also read: - Ancic ready for Mumbai challenge
- Rastogi will soon be India No 1: Nandan Bal
World No 10 Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, Germany's Nicolas Kiefer, Fabrice Santoro of France and former US Open finalist Greg Rusedski pulled out.
"Stepanek is out due to injury," Mahesh Bhupathi said on Friday. "He hasn't played since Wimbledon. The others may also be carrying some injuries."
Kiefer pulled out after a wrist injury while Rusedski will not be able to make it due to Davis Cup commitments.
Great Britain are playing Ukraine in Odessa, in the Europe/Africa Zone Group I second round play-offs.
Stepanek is not part of the Czech Republic team, currently playing the Davis Cup World Group Play-offs against the Netherlands in Leiden.
Tournament director Gaurav Natekar informed that Fernando Gonzalez did not give a specific reason for his withdrawal.
The 16-year-old Wagh, who won the under-19 National championship last month in Chennai, received the third direct entry into the singles main draw along with Karan Rastogi and India's top-ranked player Rohan Bopanna.
Wagh has not played on the senior circuit, but Natekar justified his selection for the wild card, saying he is a promising talent and from Maharashtra.
Wagh has been training at the Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy in Bangalore since last December.
"He is one of the up and coming players and we thought the whole idea of a tournament like this is to expose youngsters to this level of play," explained Natekar.
However, he said that players like Sanam Singh and Jeevan Neduncherhiyan were not even considered for the direct entry.
"The wild card was essentially between these four or five players. Harsh (Mankad) didn't want it because of personal reasons and Prakash (Amritraj) is also out with a wrist injury."
Mankad, who hails from Mumbai, had earlier told rediff.com that he declined the wild card because the organisers failed to confirm it.
