Asian Games bronze medallist Yuichi Sugita was stretched by Ramkumar Ramanathan before winning 7-5, 7-6(4) in the first round of men’s singles at the KPIT-MSLTA ATP Challenger on Tuesday.
The fourth-seeded Japanese, ranked 144, ran into trouble in the second set before defeating the Indian teenager, ranked 226, in the MSLTA-organised event being held at the Shiv Chhatrapati tennis complex.
Russian second seed, Aleksandr Kudryatsev, faced a difficult rival in wildcard Sidarth Rawat, the national runner-up, before winning in three sets.
Indians advancing into the second round were third seed Somdev Devvarman, seventh seed Yuki Bhambri, Indore ATP event champion Saket Myneni and qualifier Vijay Sundar Prashant.
Somdev beat wildcard entry Arjun Kadhe in an hour. Bhambri defeated Liang-Chi Huang of Chinese Taipei in straight sets.Myneni outplayed Frenchman Fabrice Martin. Prashant outlasted junior S. K. Mukund.
The results:
First round: Men: Oleksandr Nedovyesov (Kaz) bt Danai Udomchoke (Tha) 6-3, 6-1; Somdev Devvarman (Ind) bt Arjun Kadhe (Ind) 6-1, 6-3; Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) 7-5, 7-6(4); Hiroki Moriya (Jpn) bt Riccardo Ghedin (Ita) 7-6(4), 6-3; Yuki Bhambri (Ind) bt Liang-Chi Huang (Tpe) 6-3, 6-0; Kimmer Coppejans (Bel) bt Purav Raja (Ind) 6-4, 7-5.
Saketh Myneni (Ind) bt Fabrice Martin (Fra) 6-2, 6-2; Toshihide Matsui (Jpn) bt Ti Chen (Tpe) 7-6(3), 6-4; Germain Gigounon (Bel) bt Sarvar Ikramov (Uzb) 6-1, 6-4; Adam Pavlasek (Cze) bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (Ind) 6-4, 6-1; Sanam Singh (Ind) bt Stefano Travaglia (Ita) 5-2 (retd.); Vijay Sundar Prashant (Ind) bt S.K. Mukund 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-1; Adrian Menendez Macarias (Esp) bt N. Sriram Balaji 6-4, 6-4; Aleksandr Kudryatsev (Rus) bt Sidarth Rawat (Ind) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles: Germain Gigounon (Bel) & Fabrice Martin (Fra) bt Arjun Kadhe & Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-7(4),7-5, 10-7; Saketh Myneni & Sanam Singh (Ind) bt Riccardo Ghedin (Ita) & Yannick Reuter (Bel) 6-1, 6-0; Yuki Bhambri & Divij Sharan (Ind) bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan & Vishnu Vardhan (Ind) 7-6(6), 6-7(4),10-7; Toshihide Matsui & Yasutaka Uchiyama (Jpn) bt Ruben Gonzales & Purav Raja 6-4, 6-7(4), 11-9.