New Delhi, Aug 23 - Junior Australian Open champion Yuki Bhambri is all keyed up to play in the US Open, and in the tune-up to the last Grand Slam of the year will be appearing in the $10,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament that begins here Monday.

Yuki, seeded second in the second of the three back-to-back ITF tournaments, will add strength to the Indian challenge, led by last week's finalist Vishnu Vardhan, who has got the top billing this week as well. South Korean Young-Jun Kim, who beat Vardhan to win the title in the first week, has been seeded third.

Yuki, who in January became the first Indian to win a junior Australian Open, did not play in the next two Slams -- the junior Wimbledon and French Open.

'I wanted to get some match practice before leaving for the US Open, so I decided to play this week here,' Yuki, who will be heading for the Flushing Meadows next week Saturday, told IANS.

The Delhi boy, who held a 17-match winning streak at the DLTA stadium here before bowing out in the ITF quarter-final in July, says he is once again up for the challenge.