IMAGE: Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who returned aggressively, beat French player Mathias Bourgue in the opening round. Photograph: Tata Open Maharashtra/Twitter
Prajnesh Gunneswaran emerged as the only Indian to manage a win in the singles main draw of the Bengaluru Open as Ramkumar Ramanathan and Arjun Kadhe made first-round exits, along with two other home players, in Bengaluru, on Tuesday.
The left-handed Gunneswaran, who returned aggressively, beat French player Mathias Bourgue 7-6(4), 6-2 in the opening round of the US$ 53,120 ATP Challenger tournament.
However, Ramkumar, who won the doubles trophy in Pune last week with Rohan Bopanna, squandered a one-set advantage to lose 6-3, 0-6, 5-7 to Australia’s Max Purcell in his opening round.
Kadhe, who had qualified for the main draw, struggled with his serve and lost his match 1-6, 2-6 to Turkey’s Altug Celikbilek.
Wild card S D Prajwal Dev lost 2-6, 2-6 to Bulgaria’s Dimitar Kuzmanov.
Rishi Reddy, another wild card entrant, lost 1-6, 3-6 to sixth seed Frenchman Enzo Couacaud.
Prajnesh is now the only Indian surviving in the singles draw as Saketh Myneni has already exited the event following his first-round defeat on Monday.
In the doubles, the Indian pair of Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan entered the quarter-finals after the Turkish team of Altug Celikbilek and Cem Ilkel retired midway into the contest. The Indians were leading 3-1 at the time.
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