Indeed, the fact that better quality foreign players have stayed away from the Indian Circuit is a blessing for those like Prahlad Srinath. The slim player, Karnataka's first and only Davis Cup representative, won the Mumbai leg with ease, and, but for illness, might well have pocketed the second leg too in Hyderabad.

Srinath is top seeded for the Wearhouse third-leg starting at the hosts' Century Club courts tomorrow and if fit, would be relishing the idea of bagging another title. Two other Indians, Saurav Panja (sixth) and Sandeep Kirtane (eighth) also find themselves in the seedings' list.

Srinath, meanwhile, is yet to arrive in the city. However, his first match is scheduled only for Tuesday. He has withdrawn from the doubles. His partner Vasudev Reddy has pairedup with Greece's Niko Karagiannis for this tourney.

Meanwhile, the six qualifiers were identified today. They are: Mike Boulding (Britain), Viplav Anjan (India), Praveen Kumar (India), Ford Andrew (Britain), SB Keerthi (India) and Kamala Kannan (India).

Seeding: 1-Prahlad Srinath, 2-Federico Rovai (Sweden), 3-Danai Udomchoke (Thailand), 4-Johan Hede (Sweden), 5-Patrick Erhart (Germany), 6-Saurav Panja, 7-Timo Nigri (Germany), 8-Sandeep Kirtane.

Jayalakshmy top seed

INDORE: Sai Jayalakshmy of India has been given top seeding for the third leg of the ITF Women's tennis circuit, starting here tomorrow, adds PTI.

Seedings: 1-Sai Jayalkshmy (Ind), 2-Rushmi Chakravarthi (Ind), 3-Montika Anuchan (Tha), 4-Wongkamalasai Qrawan (Tha), 5-Shruti Dhawan (Ind), 6-Archana Venkataraman (Ind), 7-Anna Nefedova (Rus), 8-Arthii Venkatraman (Ind).