Bangalore: India’s top men singles player Yuki Bhambri continued his fine show and defeated compatriot Sriram N Balaji in straight sets to make an emphatic start to his campaign at $1,00,000 Bangalore Open tennis tournament, here Tuesday.
Yuki lived up to his third seed billing and defeated Balaji 6-3, 6-2 in the relatively easy first round encounter. Only last week he had clinched his first title of 2017 in the ATP Challenger Tour at Pune. He is currently ranked No. 132 in the world.
“I felt, I was hitting the ball nicely,” Yuki said after his match. I’ve gained some momentum at the end of the season and hope to continue with it,” said the man who had beaten Gael Monfils earlier in the year.
But in a major setback for Indian fans, leading contender Saketh Myneni had to withdraw from the event owing to a nagging right shoulder injury. He has been replaced by lucky loser Antoine Escoffier. “I had this injury and I tried hard to play for a couple of days but I don’t want to take any risk,” Myneni said.
Meanwhile, it was curtains for Indian wild card entrants Vishnu Vardhan and Suraj Prabodh in the tourney. Vishnu lost 3-6, 3-6 against Spain’s Mario Vilella Martinez while Suraj was shown the door by fourth seed Elias Ymer of Sweden 4-6, 6-7(4-7) in men’s singles first round matches.
Meanwhile, top seed Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Tomislav Brkic 6-4, 6-7(5-7), 7-6(7-4) in a hard-fought first round encounter. Meanwhile Croatian Borna Gojo, stunned second seed Adrian Menendez of Spain 6-3, 1-6, 7-5.
Press Trust of India
