Pune, Feb 17 Wildcard entrant 21-year-old Karan Singh went down in the opening round of the main draw, while Ramkumar Ramanathan fell short in the final qualifying round of the Maha Open ATP Challenger 100 Men’s Tennis Championship here on Monday.
In the main draw matches that started on Monday, eighth-seeded Alexis Galarneau of Canada took 1 hour 3 minutes to give a lesson on the court to wildcard and 21-year-old Karan Singh 6-4,6-1. The Canadian ranked 170 in the world broke Singh in the very first game of both sets. Even though Singh looked confident in the first set, he went down tamely in the second set.
The event is being organized by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) in association with the Department of Sports and Youth Services Govt of Maharashtra, PCMC, PMC, and PMDTA in the Tennis Stadium at the Balewadi sports complex.
Winner of the last edition's Maha Open Challenger in Pune, Valentin Vacherot of Monaco, who went as high as 110th rank last year, is currently ranked 201. He picked up from where he left off last year, to create the first upset of the tournament as he toppled fourth-seeded Elmer Moller of Denmark, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in just over 2 hours to make it to the second round.
Dalibor Svrcina of the Czech Republic, a regular on the Indian Futures Tour, saved two match points to come from 4-5 down in the third set to register a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over August Holmgren of Denmark in the longest match of the day, lasting 2 hours 26 minutes.
In the final qualifying rounder, seventh-seeded Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium prevailed against Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-0 in 2 hour 3 minutes to qualify for the main draw. Ramkumar showed glimpses of brilliance in the second set but went down in the third as he could not maintain the same tempo.
Sixth-seeded Ilia Simakin of Russia ousted former winner of the Maha Open ATP Tour, Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic, winning 7-5, 6-1. Meanwhile, another Russian Petr Bar Biryukov also qualified for the main draw. As did Michael Geerts, also of Belgium, ninth-seeded Masamichi Imamura, and Hiroki Moriya of Japan.
Results: Main Draw: First Round:
Valentin Vacherot bt [4]Elmer Moller(DEN) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4; [8] Alexis Galarneau (CAN) bt [WC] Karan Singh (IND) 6-4,6-1
Final Qualifying Round:
[3] Michael Geerts (BEL) bt [8] Justin Engel (GER) 7-6(4), 6-2; [9] Masamichi Imamura (JPN) bt [4] Blake Ellis (AUS) 6-1, 6-4; [6] Ilia Simakin bt [10] Jiri Vesely (CZE) 7-5, 6-1; [7] Kimmer Coppejans (BEL) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-0; Petr Bar Biryukov bt [11] Kris Van Wyk (RSA) 6-3, 6-4
Hiroki Moriya (JPN) bt [12] Matthew Dellavedova (AUS)
Doubles: First Round:
Jay Clarke(GBR)/Jurij Rodionov (AUT) bt Enzo Couacaud (FRA)/Rio Noguchi (JPN) 6-3, 5-7, 12-10.
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