Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan celebrated breaking into the top-300 for the first time in his career by registering a fluent 6-1 6-1 win over Rasul Akhmadaliev in the first round of the ATP Challenger event, here today.
Left-handed Jeevan, who touched a career-high rank of 295 today, took 53 minutes to dispatch his young rival in the USD 50,000 hard court event.
Jeevan broke the local boy in the first game of the match but Uzbek broke back. Jeevan then saved two break points in the third game and did not lose a game in the opening set.
He just rolled over the Uzbek in the second set and raced to the win.
India Davis Cupper Saketh Myneni and N Sriram Balaji are also in the fray in the singles.
Jeevan has paired with Myneni for the doubles event and they have been seeded third. Balaji has teamed up with Ti Chen. The second-seeded Indo-Taipei pair fought past Belarus' Egor Gerasimov and Russia's Denis Matsukevich 6-4 6-2 in just 53 minutes to reach the quarterfinals.
