Pune: India’s lone representative in the second round of the main draw, Sumit Nagal provided hope briefly in the third set but was outlasted by the qualifier Domnik Palan, from the Czech Republic, to end India’s Challenge in the singles event at the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) Open ATP challenger Men’s 100 tennis championships here.
In the second round singles, Qualifier Dominik Palan, who won a couple of ITF events in India last year, ended the Challenge of Indian Davis Cupper Nagal 4-6, 6-3,6-4 in just over two hours in the event organized by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) at the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Tennis Stadium.
Nagal, who won the first set comfortably, looked on cruise mode before being broken early in the second set and losing the set. In the third Palan increased the pace of the match and caught Nagal on the wrong foot many times and also succeeded in breaking Nagal in the very first game of the third set.
Nagal, who is ranked higher than his qualifier opponent, provided brief hope in the 9th game of the match going up three breakpoints, but Palan held his serve solidly to warp the match and end Indian Hopes. Wildcard Nagal received 9 ATP points and $2105 (Rs 1.73 lakh) for his effort of making the second round.
In other singles matches, second-seeded Chun-Hsin Tseng of Taipei outwitted Serbian Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in 1hr and 36 mins.
In an all-Italian affair, fourth-seeded Luca Nardi came back from the loss of the first set to oust Lorenzo Giustino 6-7(11), 6-0, 6-4 in 2hrs and 38 mins while eighth-seeded Rio Noguchi of Japan stopped qualifier Nikola Milojevic of Serbia 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.
The Indians, however, did well in the doubles event of the tournament, as Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Manish Sureshkumar, Mukund Sasikumar, Vishnu Vardhan, Anirudh Chandrasekar and N Vijay Sundar Prashanth, Arjun Kadhe progressed into the quarterfinals with their respective partners.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran paired up with Boris Butulija of Serbia and defeated the Indian wildcard pair of Parikshit Somani and Manish Sureshkumar 6-2, 6-2. In a late evening match the number 2 ranked Indo-Austrian duo of Arjun Kadhe and Maximilian Neuchrist defeated an all-Indian wildcard pairing of Faisal Qamar and Fardeen Qamar 6-3, 6-4.
Also progressing was Purav Raja of India who paired up with Petr Nouza of the Czech Republic, the number 4 seeds, and beat French -Japanese pairing of Harold Mayot and Makoto Ochi 6-3, 6-2.
Results:
Singles (second round): 4-Luca Nardi (ITA, 158) bt Lorenzo Giustino (ITA) 6-7(11), 6-0, 6-4; Q-Dominik Palan (CZE,412) bt WC-Sumit Nagal (IND,387) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 8-Rio Noguchi (JPN, 210) bt Q] Nikola Milojevic (SRB) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, 2-Chun-Hsin Tseng (TPE,131) bt Hamad Medjedovic (SRB) 6-4, 6-4.
First Round: Doubles:
Boris Butulija (SRB)/Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) bt (WC)Parikshit Somani/Manish Sureshkumar(IND) 6-2, 6-2, Anirudh Chandrasekar/N Vijay Sundar Prashanth(IND) bt Dayne Kelly (AUS)/Vladyslav Orlov (UKR) 6-1, 7-5, Mukund Sasikumar (IND)/Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Francesco Maestrelli/Luca Nardi(ITA) 2-6, 6-3, 10-7, Toshihide Matsui/Kaito Uesugi(JPN)(5) W/O Dimitar Kuzmanov(BUL) /Miljan Zekic(SRB); Arjun Kadhe (IND)/Maximilian Neuchrist (AUT) (2) bt WC-Faisal Qamar/Fardeen Qamar(IND) 6-3, 6-4
Petr Nouza (CZE)/Purav Raja (IND)(4) vs Harold Mayot(FRA)/Makoto Ochi (JPN) 6-3, 6-2