Chennai, Feb 10 (PTI) India’s Sumit Nagal and Mukund Sasikumar registered contrasting wins to advance to the second round of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger here on Tuesday.
The biggest cheer of the day, however, came from the home crowd when Indian wildcard Sidharth Rawat produced a major upset, knocking out fifth seed Rio Noguchi in three sets.
The 32-year-old Rawat, ranked No. 715 in the world, recovered after losing the opening set 2-6 to win 6-3, 6-2 against Noguchi, who is ranked No. 246.
“Today’s match was an absolute rollercoaster with many breaks of serve and a lot of ups and downs,” Rawat said after the win.
“I started a little slow in the first set, then took a short break, regrouped and came back strong in the second. I was feeling powerful in my legs and that helped me a lot. I was just going with the flow and following my instincts without overthinking.” In the late evening match, former champion and India No. 1 Nagal, who was part of India’s Davis Cup win over the Netherlands in Bengaluru over the weekend, recovered from a slow start to beat Britain’s Felix Gill 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.
Earlier in the day, Mukund fought back from an early break down in the first set to defeat fellow Indian and close friend Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-5, 6-3.
Seventh seed Florent Bax of France also bowed out of the competition after being forced to retire in the third set of his first-round clash against Denis Yevseyev. The Kazakh was leading 5-7, 6-4, 3-2 when Bax was unable to continue.
Second seed Federico Agustin Gomez, third seed Oliver Crawford, fourth seed Ilia Simakin and sixth seed Frederico Ferreira Silva all progressed to the Round of 16 after recording wins over Indian players.
Digvijay Pratap Singh put up a strong fight before going down 7-6, 3-6, 7-5 to Crawford in a three-hour contest — the longest match of the day.
Top seed Jay Clarke will begin his singles campaign on Wednesday against Ioannis Xilas. Wednesday’s schedule will also feature second-round singles matches and the completion of the first-round doubles matches at the SDAT Tennis Stadium, Nungambakkam. PTI APA BS BS
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