MSlTA have decided to host a USD 10,000 ITF women's event along with ATP Challenger for which newly-crowned national champion Vishnu Vardhan and Siddarth Rawat have been awarded wild cards.
The other two singles wild cards for the USD 50,000 men's event have been given to country's number one junior Dhruv Sunish and local boy Jayesh Pungaliya, according to MSlTA secretary general Sunder Iyer.
Saketh Myneni will spearhead the Indian challenge along with fellow Davis Cup teammates Ramkumar Ramanathan and young Sumit Nagal.
Russia's number one Evgeny Donskoy, a quarter-finalist at the Rio Olympics, will lead the singles field while Spain's Ramirez Hidalgo will be another tough customer.
The other notable foreigners in the fray are South Korea's Duckhee lee, Serbian Nikola Milojevic, Kazakh Dmitry Popko and Great Britain's James Ward.
"We hope to make this into one of the biggest tennis events in the country in the coming years. I’m also happy that our tournament, which is being held for the third year in a row, has thrown up new champions every year," said Kishore Patil, Chairman of the organizing committee and MD of KPIT.
Maharashtra State lawn Tennis Association President Bharat Oza said the USD 10,000 women's event was added to help domestic players, who have not featured in India since February.
Iyer said wild cards in men's doubles has been given to doubles national champion from Pune Anvit Bendre and in the women's event to Pune junior Snehal Mane and top state junior Mihika Yadav.
The men's Challenger winner will receive USD 7,200 (Rs 4,80,000) and 80 ATP points, while the runner-up would get USD 4,053 (Rs 2,70,000) and 55 ATP points.
The winner in the women's event is to get 18 WTA points and USD 1568 (Rs 1,05,000) and the runner-up would take home USD 980 (Rs 65,000) and 10 WTA points.
Sheetal Iyer has been appointed as the referee for the ITF women's event, while Carmelo Di Dio of Italy, one of the senior most ATP Supervisors, will be the chief of the ATP event.
The men's qualifying rounds will be played on October 22 and 23 and the women’s qualifying will start on Sunday. The main draws will start October 24.
