Bhubaneswar: A 5-day KIIT-AITA 50K Men's Ranking Tennis Tournament will begin at KIIT University Tennis Complex from October 1.

Players from different parts of the country are expected to participate in the tournament, which will be hosted by KIIT University, under the aegis of Odisha Tennis Association.

Tamil Nadu' Vinod Sridhar has been given the top billing, while his state mate Rithvik Anand has been made the second seed. A total of 18 players, including three from Odisha have been given direct entry in the main draw, which will feature a total of 32 contestants. Among the Odisha trio, local favourite Chinmay Pradhan has been made the third seed. Adwithiya Patnaik and Santosh Kumar Mallik are the other two Odisha players to have secured direct entry in the main draw.

According to tournament supervisor Prabin Kumar Nayak, three other Odisha players have been given wild cards to play in the main draw directly.  They are, Satirtha Patnaik, Ajay Kumar Nishank and Srijeet Patnaik.

Before the main-draw competition, qualifying matches will take place on September 29 and 30 to fill up the last eight berths in the main draw.  As many as 50 players have confirmed their entries for the qualifying competition.