Tata Open Maharashtra: India’s Bhambri, Ramanathan off to winning start in qualifiers; three players lose

Yuki
Bhambri
and
Ramkumar
Ramanathan
won
their
opening
games
in
the
singles
qualifying
round
while
Prajnesh
Gunneswaran,
Sidharth
Rawat
and
Aditya
Balsekar
tasted
defeats
in
their
respective
matches.

Bhambri-Ramanathan
win

While
Bhambri
dominated
Diego
Hidalgo
by
6-2,
6-2
in
a
one-sided
match,
Chennai-based
Ramanathan,
who
entered
the
draw
as
a
wildcard,
registered
a
sensational
come-from-behind
2-6,
7-5,
6-2
victory
against
Otto
Virtanen.

South
Asia’s
only
ATP
250
event,
Tata
Open
Maharashtra
is
being
conducted
by
the
Maharashtra
State
Lawn
Tennis
Association
(MSLTA)
in
association
with
the
Government
of
Maharashtra
for
the
fifth
year
in
Pune.

Prajnesh
Gunneswaran
went
down
fighting
7-6
(6),
3-6,
7-5
against
the
former
Word
No.
45
Maximilian
Marterer,
while
Rawat
made
Zdenek
Kolar
work
hard
before
losing
the
match
by
6-1,
6-7
(4),
6-1.
Balsekar
was
defeated
by
Flavio
Cobolli
6-3,
6-0.

In
other
first-round
matches,
last
year’s
semi-finallist
Elias
Ymer
made
progress
after
his
opponent
Miljan
Zekic
retired.
Mattia
Bellucci
beat
Vladyslav
Orlov
6-4,
6-4
and
Nikola
Milojevic
also
thrashed
Nicholas
David
Ionel
by
6-3,
6-2
in
a
similar
fashion.

The
second
and
final
round
of
the
qualifiers
will
be
played
on
Sunday
as
Bhambri,
Ramanathan
and
others
will
look
to
win
and
secure
the
main
draw
spots
for
themselves.

Bhambri
and
Ramanathan
will
take
on
Ymer
and
Bellucci
respectively
in
the
final
round.
The
prestigious
tournament,
owned
by
IMG
and
managed
by
RISE
Worldwide,
is
sponsored
by
Tata
Motors.

Earlier
in
the
day,
the
15-year-old
rising
India
star
Manas
Dhamne
was
handed
a
main
draw
wildcard
in
the
singles
as
the
draws
were
announced.
The
Pune-born
tennis
prodigy
Dhamne
will
be
seen
competing
in
the
main
draw
alongside
the
global
tennis
stars
including
world
number
17
Marin
Cilic.

The
main
draw
will
take
place
from
January
2
to
7.