Chandigarh ITF Futures tennis: Top-seed Yuki Bhambri cruises into second round

Top-seed Yuki Bhambri of India made a flying start to his campaign in the $15,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament being played at the Chandigarh Lawn Tennis Association tennis stadium in Chandigarh.

Yuki, who is the second highest ranked men’s singles player after Somdev Devvarman, made short work of Abhijeet Tiwari 6-3, 6-1 to storm into the second round.

Yuki, ranked 262nd in the ATP rankings, assumed control over Abhijeet from the start, essaying nice groundstrokes and solid serve coupled with decent net play.

He broke Abhijeet’s serve in the opening set to pave the way for a 6-3 first set win.

The wheels came off Abhijeet’s game in the second set. He was only able to win one game even as Yuki towered over him.

The top-seed held his serve with confidence and broke Abhijeet’s serve on a regular basis to wrap up the second set 6-1 for a bullish march into the second round, where he meets 933rd ranked Austin Karosi of the USA.

The American disposed of Indian wildcard entrant Ranjeet Singh 6-4, 6-4 in the first round.

Second seed N.Sriram Balaji of India also made an auspicious beginning, easing past fellow country mate Pranav Suri 6-2, 6-4 in the opening round.

The 327th ranked player broke Pranav’s serve early to bag the first set 6-2.

Pranav fought hard in the second set but ran out of steam in the end to lose it at 4-6 to hand Sriram a passage to the second round where he meets another Indian Jatin Dahiya. Jatin earlier accounted for wildcard entrant Ojas Rathi 6-0, 6-1 in the opening round.

Fourth seed Vishnu Vardhan overcame a first set resistance to pip Vignesh Peranamallur 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the first round.

Fifth seed Saketh Myneni also entered the second round, prevailing over fellow Indian Saurabh Patil 7-5, 6-1 in the opening round.

Sixth seed N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth vanquished Lakshit Sood 7-5, 6-3 to move into the second round.

Seventh seed Vijakant Malik romped into the second round, cruising past fellow Indian Anvit Bendre 6-3, 6-1.

Eight seed Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan got the better of Vignesh Veerabadran 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.

It may be worth recalling that India’s Ankita Raina had finished runners-up in the recent $10,000 ITF Lucknow Futures tennis tournament in Lucknow, losing to Japan’s Emi Mutaguchi.

The Lucknow event was Ankita’s fourth consecutive ITF Futures final.

The national grasscourt champion had clinched the Chennai Futures a week before the Lucknow tourney.

The Gujarat girl, who is now based in Pune, had also finished runners-up in the two ITF Futures tourneys in Hyderabad last March.

Ankita had pipped Anushka Bhargava in the opening round, before sailing past Preethi Ujjini in the second round to secure her passage to the quarterfinals.

The 489th ranked Indian put it across Sai Samhitha Chamarthi in the quarterfinals. Ankita got past Shweta Rana in the semifinals.