India's top singles players, led by Somdev Devvarman, easily advanced to the second round of ATP Pune Challenger but rising star Ramkumar Ramanathan made a shock first-round exit, here today.
Third seed Somdev proved too good for local wildcard Arjun Kadhe, scoring a 6-1 6-3 win in exactly one hour.
Seventh seed Yuki Bhambri disposed of the challenge of Chinese Taipei's Liang-Chi Huang 6-3 6-0 in one hour 18 minutes.
Winner of Indore Open Saketh Myneni went past Frenchman Fabrice Martin 6-2 6-2 while Sanam Singh advanced when his Italian opponent Stefano Travaglia conceded the match due to an inflamed ankle. Sanam was leading 5-2 when Travaglia quit.
In an all-Indian contest, qualifier Vijay Sundar Prashant fought past Sasi Mukund 7-6(6) 3-6 6-1 after two hours and two minutes.
However, it turned out to be a tough day for Ramkumar as he lost his first round 5-7 6-7(4) to fourth seed Japanese Yuichi Sugita. Ramkumar later lost his doubles match also with partner Arjun Kadhe. They lost 6-7(4) 7-5 10-7 to Germain Gigounon of Belgium and Fabrice Martin of France.
Also losing in the singles were Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, N Sriram Balaji and doubles specialist Purav Raja.
Raja went down fighting to eighth seed Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium 4-6 5-7 while Czech player Adam Pavlasek scored a 6-4 6-1 win over Jeevan.
Spain's Adrian Menendez Macarias accounted N Sriram Balaji 6-4 6-4. Second seeded Aleksandr Kudryatsev of Russia was tested by wild card and national runner up Siddarth Rawat before he won 4-6 6-3 6-2.
In the doubles, the Indian pair of Saketh Myneni and Sanam Singh thrashed Riccardo Ghedin of Italy and Belgian Yannick Reuter 6-1 6-0 whlle second seeds Yuki and Divij Sharan saved two match points before prevailing over wildcards Jeevan and Vishnu Vardhan 7-6 (6) 6-7(4) 10-7.
