New Delhi, Aug 8:
Vishnu Vardhan was the lone Indian to make it to the singles second round of the ATP Challenger event in Jinan, China while five others, including Arujuna awardee Saketh Myneni, were knocked out in the first round.
Vardhan, who is now doing well in doubles, beat Taipei’s Ti Chen 7-6(3) 6-3 in the opening round of the USD 150,000 hard court event.
He will next face local wild card Zhizhen Zhang.
However, Myneni bowed out after a tame 2-6 2-6 defeat against second seed Russian Evgeny Donskoy.
Also making a first round exit were Sasi Kumar Mukund, Qualifier Sidharth Rawat, N Sriram Balaji and N Vijay Sundar Prashanth.
Featuring in the top-half of the draw, Mukund lost 3-6 2-6 to Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev while Rawat was beaten 2-6 4-6 by Korean seventh seed Soon Woo Kwon.
Sriram Balaji lost his first round match 2-6 2-6 to Japanese third seed Go Soeda.
In the bottom half, Qualifier Prashanth lost 4-6 4-6 to Japanese Shuichi Sekiguchi.
In the doubles, third seeded combo of Balaji and Vardhan defeated compatriots Myneni anbd Prashanth 6-2 6-2 to make it to the quarterfinals.
Rawat and Mukund’s campaign ended in doubles too with a 1-6 2-6 defeat against Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic and Spain’s Mario Martinez Vilella. (PTI)
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