Pune: Yuki Bhambri asserted his class over a promising Arjun Kadhe even as young Sumit Nagal’s ATP World Tour debut ended in a tame defeat at the Tata Open Maharashtra tennis tournament here, Tuesday.
Bhambri, the country’s top-ranked singles players, outplayed wild card and local boy Kadhe 6-3, 6–4 in the opening round. He will now fight it out with eighth seed Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who battled past Marco Cecchinato 7-6(7-4) 6-7(2-7), 6-2 in a gruelling season-opener.
Nagal’s unbeaten streak of seven matches (including qualifiers) was halted by Ilya Ivashka as the Indian bowed out with a 3-6, 3-6 defeat in his first round encounter.
Kadhe had nothing to lose and went for his shots but his uncontrolled aggression did not trouble Bhambri, who maintained a tight control over the proceedings. He returned everything Kadhe threw at him and found some superb winners.
In other singles matches of the day, fifth seed Robin Haase overcame a stiff resistance from Blaz Kavcic 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 while Laslo Djere bounced back to beat Marius Copil 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.
Meanwhile Jeevan Nedunche-zhiyan’s remarkable progress as a doubles player came to fore as he and Rohan Bopanna began the defence of their title by knocking out Leander Paes and Purav Raja. The left-hander from Chennai, the youngest of all four at 29, came out firing on all cylinders as they beat their unseeded rivals 6-3, 6-2 to progress to the quarterfinals.
Jeevan, now ranked 102, stood out with his well-calculated lobs and precise strokeplay, making a huge difference to the outcome of the match. In the second set he lost only one point on his serve. In contrast, Raja could not hold his serve even once.
Agencies
