Chennai: India's highest ranked players, Prakash Amritraj and Karan Rastogi along with up and coming Spaniard Bartolome Salva Vidal were extended wild cards in the 32-main draw of the ATP Tour Chennai Open Tennis championship starting here on January 1.

Besides Amritraj and Rastogi in singles, the two bright prospects of Indian tennis, Vishal Uppal and Ashutosh Singh received the wild card for the Doubles Main Draw.

According to a release, Anil Khanna, Secretary, All India Tennis Association, who confirmed the names of these Indian stars for the wild cards, expressed confidence that "Prakash and Karan will provide Indian tennis the much needed boost in the years to come."

 Amritraj was frequently injured this season. He was the runner-up with Rohan Bopanna in the Chennai Open doubles last year. Bopanna, who will not be here for Chennai Open, will be representing the country in the Hopman's Cup in Australia.

On the other hand, Karan, who had wild cards in 2004 and 2005 in singles and in the doubles in last event, had won the ABN Amro Challenge tournament in the last two years beating key players including Simon Gruel, one of the stars competing in the Chennai Open.

Vidal, a six feet tall 20-year-old from Mallorca Island, the home town of both Carlos Moya and Rafal Nadal, has risen from 450 in the rankings at the start of the year to 353 in May this year. He had won the Futures title in Vilafrance and was runner-up at four other Futures tournament this year.