Thompson, Bhambri start with easy wins

Top-seed Jordan Thompson of Australia and second-seed Yuki Bhambri of India advanced with straight set wins today in the Chennai Open ATP Challenger tennis tournament here.

While Thompson beatMohamed Maamoun of Egypt 6-4, 6-2, Bhambri got past Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain 6-1, 7-6.

Bhambri blew away the Spaniard's challenge in the first set, winning it 6-1 in quick time.

He broke thrice and dominated the proceedings with strongserves and punishing ground strokes.

In the second set the Spaniard recovered well and played with much more intensity. Both players traded a break before the set moved to the tiebreak which Bhambri won 7-3.
 

In the other match, Thompsonwas broken twice but he broke back thrice to take the first set 6-4.

In the second set also, he broke Karim thrice to win it 6-2.

In a surprise result, local ladAbhinav SanjeevShanmugam, a qualifier, moved into the second round when Ivan Nedelko of Russia retired due to stomach cramps.

MartinezPedro of Spain beat local lad Prajnesh Gunneswaran, the eighth seed 6-1, 6-4.

Results (Indians unless stated): Mens Singles (first round): JordanThompson (1) bt Karim-Mohamed Maamoun (EGY)6-4, 6-2;Danilo Petrovic (SRB) bt Manish Sureshkumar 6-4, 6-2;Yuki Bhambri bt Bernabe Zapata Miralles (ESP) 6-1, 7-6(3), Pedri Martinez (ESP) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran (8) 6-1, 6-4;

Abhinav Shanjeev Shanmugam bt Ivan Nedelko (RUS) 3-6, 5-4 (Retd.) Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN-6) bt Max Purcell (AUS)6-1, 7-6(5); CemIlkel (TUR) bt Dmitry Popko (KAZ)4-6, 7-6(6), 6-2.

Enrique Lopez Perez (ESP-7) bt Kimmer Coppejans (BEL) 7-5, 6-4.

Mens Doubles: CemIlkel (TUR) / Danilo Petrovic (SRB) by Gerard Granollers (ESP) / Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN-3) 7-5, 6-3; KunalAnand (IND)/Anvit Bendrebt Nikola Cacic (SRB) / Ivan Nedelko (RUS) 2-0 retired.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran/N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt Arjun Kadhe/Dhakshineswar Suresh 7-6(3), 6-1; Tuna Altuna (TUR)/Mohamed Safwat (EGY) bt Pedro Martinez (ESP)/ Sumit Nagal 6-3 retired.

Alessandro Bega (ITA)/Kimmer Coppejans (BEL) bt Lucas Catarina (MON)/Max Purcell (AUS) 6-2, 6-3.