NEW DELHI: Ashutosh Singh arrested his dipping fortunes in singles with a 6-3, 7-6(4) victory over the second-seeded Divij Sharan in the first round of the $10,000 ITF men's Futures tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday.

On a cool morning, thanks to a cloud cover, Ashutosh played with usual flair against fellow Delhite. Divij was not match sharp as he had been busy with his college examinations recently after having made the semifinals of the Kuwait Futures last month.

It was a welcome victory for Ashutosh, his third over Divij in five meetings in the international circuit, after he had lost in the first round of his last six matches.

Ashutosh will have to contend with Hsin-Han Lee of Chinese Taipei who proved too good for the young Sriram Balaji, thanks to his impressive athleticism and an explosive forehand, though a weird backhand may get exposed soon.

Navdeep Singh showed better fighting spirit as he got past Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan with an authoritative performance in the decider.

Vinod Sridhar downed National champion Purav Raja in three sets to set up an intriguing second round against lucky-loser Tsung-Hua Yang of Chinese Taipei.

Quite interestingly, the 16-year-old Yang beat Andrew Fitzpatrick of Britain rather comfortably after having lost to the same player in three sets in the third and final qualifying round on Monday.

With the third-seeded Vivek Shokeen pulling out owing to ill health along with the non-appearance of Myles Blake of Britain, there were two lucky-loser spots and Yang was drawn to play Fitzpatrick by draw of lots.

Gajjar does well

Former National junior champion, Rohan Gajjar continued with his good work in the qualifying event to beat fellow qualifier Kamala Kannan in two tight sets. He will play the fourth-seeded Sunil Kumar.

Prakash Amritraj and Karan Rastogi played quite solid to continue with their good work of having made the finals of the last two tournaments. Equally, Sanam Singh was in delectable form as he out-classed Stephen Amritraj.

The results:

Singles (first round): Karan Rastogi bt Kiran Nandakumar 6-1, 6-3; Navdeep Singh bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; Tsung-Hua Yang (Tpe) bt Andrew Fitzpatrick (GBR) 6-1, 6-2; Vinod Sridhar bt Purav Raja 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Matthew Smith (GBR) bt P. C. Vignesh 6-4, 6-3; Sanam Singh bt Stephen Amritraj 6-2, 6-3; Rohan Gajjar bt Kamala Kannan 7-5, 7-6 (4); Sunil Kumar b Mithun Murali 6-1, 6-3; Prakash Amritraj bt Shivang Mishra 6-3, 6-4; Gursharan Singh bt Nitten Kirrtane 6-4, 6-3; Hsin-Han Lee (Tpe) bt Sriram Balaji 6-2, 6-3; Ashutosh Singh bt Divij Sharan 6-3, 7-6(4).

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Tushar Liberhan and Sanam Singh bt Gursharan Singh and Shiva Sangwan.

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