JOIN USThird seed N Sriram Balaji came from behind to get his way past Indian compatriot Ramkumar Ramanathan in straight sets in the opening round of the USD 15,000 CCI-ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament here on Monday.
Balaji, ranked 324, was trailing his opponent, ranked more than 700 places below him in the world, 1-4 before clawing his way into the match to post a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 victory in ten minutes under two hours to enter round two.
Also through to the singles second round was sixth seed and national champion Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and the runner-up Arjun Kadhe along with Austrian Nicolas Reissig.
Jeevan, ranked 395, overcame wild card PC Vignesh 6-2, 6-3 while Kadhe got the better of fellow wild card and compatriot Kunal Anand 6-3, 6-0.
Results (Prefix denotes seedings, Indians unless mentioned): First round: Singles: Arjun Khade bt Kunal Anand 6-3, 6-0; Nicolas Reissig (Aut) bt Ajai Selvaraj 6-3, 6-3; 6-Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Vignesh Peranamallur 6-2, 6-3; 3-N Sriram Balaji bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-5, 6-4.