India’s top singles players, led by Somdev Devvarman, easily advanced to the second round of ATP Pune Challenger but rising star Ramkumar Ramanathan made a shock first-round exit, here on Tuesday.
Third seed Somdev proved too good for local wildcard Arjun Kadhe, scoring a 6-1, 6-3. Seventh seed Yuki Bhambri disposed the challenge of Chinese Taipei’s Liang-Chi Huang 6-3, 6-0.
Winner of Indore Open Saketh Myneni went past Frenchman Fabrice Martin 6-2, 6-2 while Sanam Singh advanced when his Italian opponent Stefano Travaglia conceded the match due to an inflamed ankle. Sanam was leading 5-2 when Travaglia quit. In an all-Indian contest, qualifier Vijay Sundar Prashant fought past Sasi Mukund 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-1. It turned out to be a tough day for Ramkumar as he lost his first round 5-7, 6-7 (4) to fourth seed Japanese Yuichi Sugita. He later lost his doubles match also with partner Arjun Kadhe. They lost 6-7 (4), 7-5, 10-7 to Germain Gigounon of Belgium and Fabrice Martin of France. Losing in the singles were Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, N Sriram Balaji and doubles specialist Purav Raja. Raja went down fighting to eighth seed Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium 4-6, 5-7 while Czech Adam Pavlasek scored a 6-4, 6-1 win over Jeevan.
Spain’s Adrian Menendez Macarias accounted Balaji 6-4 6-4. Second seeded Aleksandr Kudryatsev of Russia was tested by wild card and national runner up Siddarth Rawat before he won 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
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