India had a disappointing day on Sunday as only SD Prajwal Dev could qualify for the final round of the qualifiers at the ongoing Chennai Open.
Dev defeated fellow Indian Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam 6-3, 7-5 in an hour and 39 minutes. He will now be up against Ukraine’s Vadym Ursu, who beat Manish Sureshkumar in straight sets on Saturday, February 4.
Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar looked promising on his debut in an ATP Challenger, but ended up losing 4-6, 6-7(6) to Evgeny Karlovskiy.
Ishaque Iqbal, Adil Kalyanpur, Siddharth Vishwakarma, Bharath Nishok Kumaran, Nitin Kumar Sinha, Karan Singh and Lohithakshan Bathrinath also failed to progress in the qualifiers.
Eleven of the top 12 seeds won in the first round of the qualifiers. Alexey Zakharov pulled off an upset after knocking out eighth seed Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine from France.
The final round of the qualifiers would take place on Monday, February 5. The Round of 32 matches in the main draw are also scheduled to get underway the same day.
Ramkumar Ramanathan, Mukund Sasikumar and second seed Sumit Nagal, who was impressive at the 2024 Australian Open, are the Indians in the main draw for now. Prajwal Dev is only a win away from joining them.
Chennai Open 2024: Day 1 Results (Qualifiers)
Ishaque Iqbal lost to Bogdan Bobrov 4-6, 4-6
Adil Kalyanpur lost to Kris Van Wyk 1-6, 4-6
Manish Sureshkumar lost to Vadym Ursu 6-7(6), 3-6
Siddharth Vishwakarma lost to Jonas Forejtek 2-6, 2-6
Bharath Nishok Kumaran lost to Yurii Dzhavakian 3-6, 1-6
Nitin Kumar Sinha lost to Olaf Pieczkowski 3-6, 1-6
Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar lost to Evgeny Karlovskiy 4-6, 6-7(4)
SD Prajwal Dev beat Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam 6-3, 7-5
Karan Singh lost to Luca Castelnuovo 4-6, 6-7(4)
Lohitaksha Bathrinath lost to Enzo Wallart 6-7(2), 2-6
Chennai Open 2024: Schedule (February 5)
SD Prajwal Dev vs Vadym Ursu (Ukraine) - 2 pm IST