US$50,000 ATP Karshi Challenger: Prakash Amritraj rallies from a set down to reach second round

Prakash Amritraj advanced to the second round of the US$50,000 ATP Karshi Challenger hard court tennis tournament being played at Qarshi, Uzbekistan.

The Indian rallied from a set down to vanquish France’s Antoine Benneteau 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 to progress to the next round.

The 370^th ranked Prakash – son of legendary Indian tennis player Vijay Amritraj – fought hard in the opening set but the 375^th ranked Frenchman kept things solid to nullify his opponent’s plans to surge ahead.

Antoine served robustly and returned well to offer stiff resistance to Prakash. The Indian did serve well in the opening set but dropped serve once to concede the opening set 4-6.

The Frenchman kept plugging away in the second set, not allowing Prakash any opening to claw his way back into the match.

The Indian was able to effect the crucial break of serve to bag the second set at 7-5.

The narrow second set defeat saw the wheels coming off Antoine’s game – his first serve percentage dipped while unforced errors kept mounting from his racquet.

Prakash was in supreme confidence going into the third set. He broke Antoine’s serve regularly and encountered scant resistance in the decider. He coasted to a 6-1 victory.

This is the seventh edition of the US$50,000 ATP Karshi Challenger hard court tennis tournament, which first started in 2007.

Prakash now runs into second seed Amir Weintraub of Israel.

The Indian has beaten the 185^th ranked Israeli in their past two meetings.

He first got the better of Weintraub in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the 2008 China F2 tournament.

Prakash got his second win against Weintraub in the second round of the 2010 Rimouski Challenger 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Meanwhile, another Indian, Vishnu Vardhan, fell by the wayside in the first round going down 2-6, 1-6 to Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia.

Earlier, Prakash had crashed out in the first round of the ATP Johannesburg Challenger. The 364th ranked Indian lost to Croatia’s 361st ranked Mate Pavic in three sets 7-6, 4-6, 4-6.

The 2013 hasn’t been a great year for Prakash. His best performances have been a second round appearances in the ATP Chennai Open and Le Gosier tournaments.

The Indian, earlier this year, has appeared in the Rimouski Challenger, Guadalajara Challenger, Mexico City Challenher and San Jose tournament – he failed to make it to the main draw of these tournaments bowing out in the qualifying rounds.

He, however, did manage to enter the main draw of the USA F7 hard court tournament but came a cropper in the opening round.