Bengaluru Open: Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan enter second round

The stars of last week’s Pune Challenger -- Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan -- both progressed into the second round of the $100, 000 Bengaluru Open held on the hardcourts at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association grounds on Tuesday. Third seed and Pune Challenger champion Bhambri had it easy in his opening round and notched up a commanding 6-3, 6-3 win over compatriot, N Sriram Balaji in 1 hour 24 minutes.

The fifth seeded Ramanathan, who was the runner-up at Pune, had to grind his way into Round 2 as he fought back from a set down to prevail 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 over the 412th ranked Hugo Greiner of France. The 23-year-old Indian, who is ranked 139th, could not make use of the three break point opportunities he got in the first set while the Frenchman converted the only break point he had.

In the subsequent two sets, the Indian made in-roads into his opponent’s serve thrice that gave him the win in 1 hour 52 minutes.

Ramkumar next meets Jay Clarke of Great Britain, who beat Indian qualifier Sidharth Rawat, 6-3, 6-3 on Monday. Bhambri faces Pedro Martinez of Spain, who battled past Naoki Nakagawa, 7-6(5), 6-3.

Meanwhile, Saketh Myneni, who reached the semi-finals in Pune, withdrew from the tournament due to an injury. His place was taken by the French lucky loser, Antoine Escoffier.

Second seed upset

The tournament witnessed a huge upset on Tuesday as the second seeded Adrian Menendez-Maceiras was shown the door by Croatian qualifier, Borna Gojo in three gruelling sets. In a marathon first round battle that lasted 2 hours 38 minutes, Gojo got the better of the Spaniard with a 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 win.

The top seeded Blaz Kavcic averted an upset after he barely survived his first round tussle with Bosnia’s Tomislav Brkic. The World No. 247 put on a show of guts as he came back from a set down to grab the second in a tie-break.

He stretched Kavcic to a tie-break even in the decider before falling, 2-6, 7-6(0), 6-7(6) in 2 hours 32 minutes.

Fourth seeded Elias Ymer advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 7-6(2) win over India’s Suraj R Prabodh. Eighth seeded Aleksandr Nedovyesov did not have much trouble and easily dismissed the challenge of Matej Sabanov with a 6-4, 6-1 win.

In doubles, top seeds Divij Sharan and Mikhail Elgin stormed back from a first-set deficit for a 5-7, 6-4, 10-5 win over Geoffrey Blancaneaux and Jay Clarke. Sumit Nagal teamed up with Elias Ymer to grab a 6-4, 1-6, 10-7 win over Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N Vijay Sundar Prashanth.