Maharashtra Open 2022 | Yuki Bhambri advances to second round, Prajnesh Gunneswaran ousted

02/01/2022

Ace India tennis player Yuki Bhambri advanced to the second round of the Maharashtra Open 2022 ATP 250 men's singles event on Monday following a hard-fought win over Slovakia's Jozef Kovalik. Yuki, the former world No. 83, won first-round match 6(10)-7(12), 6-2, 7-5 in three hours and six minutes.

Bhambri squandered a plethora of opportunities to go down in the opening set after prolonging the set and led 3-0 in the tiebreaker. Then he put the Slovak under strain in the second set and forced the match into a decider.

From there, the former junior world No. 1 maintained his cool and advanced to the ATP 250 tournament's pre-quarterfinals. Now Yuki will face the winner of the match between India's top-ranked singles player, Ramkumar Ramanathan, and eighth seed Stefano Travaglia of Italy on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Prajnesh Gunneswaran failed to go through the first round on Monday. The 32-year-old was eliminated early from the event after losing 7(7)-6(5), 6-2 to Daniel Altmaier of Germany.

Prajnesh took a 2-0 lead in the first set of the match. His fifth-seeded German opponent, on the other hand, rallied to win the first set after saving a set point. With 11 aces in total, Daniel Altmaier won the match after dominating the second set.

Arjun Khade will face Joao Sousa of Portugal, who is ranked 137th in the world, on Tuesday.

Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan, two of India's best doubles players, will begin their campaign against seasoned American duo Jamie Cerretani and Nicolas Monroe.

Yuki-Divij Sharan and Arjun Khade-Purav Raja are the other two Indian pairs participating at the Maharashtra Open.

In their first encounter, Arjun Khade and Purav Raja will face Moldova's Radu Albot and Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis, while Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan will face Austria's Denis Novak and Portugal's Joao Sousa.

Manish Sureshkumar and Sasikumar Mukund of India lost their qualification matches on Sunday and did not qualify for the main draw.