Arjun scalps Ramanathan in Round 1

Arjun scalps Ramanathan in Round 1

PUNE: Pune boy and wildcard Arjun Kadhe justified the wildcard given to him by the organisers as he upset second seeded Ramkumar Ramanathan to enter the second round of the main draw at the KPIT MSLTA ATP Challenger being played at the Balewadi Sports Tennis Complex here on Tuesday.

In  a match which lasted for 1 hour and 3 minutes, local boy and wildcard Arjun Kadhe who is ranked 370 upset off colour second seeded Ramkumar  Ramanathan 6-3, 6-2 to record his biggest win of the year and make it to the Round of 16. 

It was the first meeting for Arjun and Ramkumar at the Challenger level, as both players have played more than 24 times as juniors and ITF events in the past.

Kadhe looked solid from the start, breaking the fast serving Ramkumar in the 6th game of the first set and in the 5th and 7th games in the second set.

Another upset win
In another upset of the day,  former top 100 player Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan now ranked a lowly 186 and semifinalist at Bengaluru last week, upset fifth seeded Marc Polmans of Australia 6-2, 6-4. 

Another wildcard, 21 year old Sasi Kumar Mukund also justified the wildcard allotted to him as he  took out his senior Saketh Myneni  6-4, 7-6 (7-1)  in a 1 hour 28 minute thriller in a  much awaited match. Mukund who was scheduled to play Saketh in the quarterfinals last week in Bengaluru had to pull out in the warm ups itself due to a back spasm.

Winner of the Bengaluru Challenger and former finalist here Prajnesh Gunneswaran started the event where he finished last week playing fluent tennis to stop Tsung-Hua Yang of Chinese Taipei 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour and 31 minutes and become the third Indian player to make it to the second round.

In the other match of interest for India, top seeded Radu Albot of Moldova brought out all his experience to snub a fighting Sumit Nagal 7-5, 6-2 in 1 hour 29 minutes.

RESULTS:
Main Draw
Round 1: (WC) Arjun Kadhe (Ind) bt (2) Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) 6-3, 6-2; (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (Ind) bt Tsung-hua Yang (Tpe) 6-4, 6-4; (WC) Sasi Kumar Mukund (Ind) bt Saketh Myneni (Ind) 6-4, 7-6 (7-1); 1-Radu Albot (Mda) bt Sumit Nagal (Ind) 7-5, 6-2; (Q) Lucas Gerch (Ger)  bt Collin Altamirano (USA) 6-3, 6-1; (Q) Sebastian Fanselow (Ger) bt Scott Griekspoor (Ned) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Frederico Ferreira Silva (Por) bt (LL) Benjamin Hassan (Ger) 6-1, 6-2; Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kaz) bt (5) Marc Polmans (Aua) 6-2, 6-4; Maverick Banes (Aus) bt (Q) Francesco Vilardo (Ita) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1;  (Q) Ben Patael (Isr) bt Danilo Petrovic (Srb) 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.
Mens Doubles: Mark Purcell and Luke Saville bt Cem Ikel and Danilo Petrovic 6-4,1-6,(16-14); Andrej Martin and Hans Podipnik- Castillo bt Collin Altamirano and Maverick Barnes 6-4.7-5.

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