Indian Davis Cup players Prakash Amritraj and Vishal Uppal have won singles main draw wildcards for the ATP Tour Chennai Open to be played here from January 2 to 8.

Ivan Ljubicic, who championed Croatia to Davis Cup victory, was awarded the third wildcard. Ljubicic replaced world number two Rafael Nadal [Images] in the tournament, after the French Open champion pulled out due to a prolonged foot injury.

It is third time in a row that Amritraj has been given the wild card for the USD 385,000 prize money event.

"This is an exciting time for me. I am looking forward to playing in the Chennai Open and would like to thank the organisers for giving me an opportunity to start the season by playing in my father's hometown against some of the top performers on the Tour," Amritraj was quoted as saying.

Amritraj, who reached the pre-quarterfinals here in 2004, had a poor start last year losing in the first round.

He was a singles finalist at Forest Hills, New York, in 2005.

Uppal beat Rohan Bopanna to win the National Grass Court tennis championship in New Delhi [Images] last week.

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