The Potch Open ATP Challenger 80 event will see some of the top young stars battling it out on the pristine NWU Courts in Potchefstroom from 8-14 February in a bio bubble. No spectators will be allowed at the event but the good news is that the entire tournament will be streamed live on https://livestream.com/atp.

Tennis South Africa (TSA) announced the names of three players on Monday who have received Wild Card entries into the first week of the 2021 Potch Open. The Wild Card slots for the main draw of the ATP Challenger 80 event have been awarded to former top junior Kholo Montsi, Vaughn Hunter and Robbie Arends.

A second week of action will also take place from Monday, 15 February – Sunday 21 February at the same veneue. The former South African number 1 and world number 12 junior, Montsi, will get a chance for an encore after his promising performance in the ATP Challenger 50 in Potchefstroom last year, where the 18-year-old prospect lost in the opening round after a hard-fought match against ATP world number 264 Evgeny Karlovskiy from Russia.

The Potch Open event will be Montsi’s first tournament since October 2020 when he lost in the second round of the Roland Garros Junior Championships in Paris.

Hunter, meanwhile, will take part in his first competitive action of 2021 and his first tournament in 10 months. The 26-year-old last played in the Potch Open in March 2020 where he lost to Austrian Lucas Miedler in the first round.

Teenager Arends will make an appearance in his first ever ATP Challenger main draw event. In addition to the three Wild Cards for the main draw, three promising young South African players – Devin Badenhorst, Pierre Malan and Jamie Graham Davis – have been given Wild Card entries into the qualifying draw.