Sumit Nagal has been shining vivid within the season up to now. He has introduced the give attention to the singles court docket thanks first to the exploits on the Australian Open, and now constantly within the Challengers at residence in Chennai and Bengaluru.
In any other case, it was left to Rohan Bopanna and the opposite doubles stars to maintain the hearth alive in Indian tennis.
Despite the fact that he misplaced within the semifinals in Bengaluru, after having received the title in Chennai and damaged into the top-100 of ATP rating for the primary time in his profession, the 26-year-old Sumit can be powerful to beat within the third Challenger this week in Pune.
The $133,250 Maha Open Challenger has historically been a contented looking floor for the Indian gamers, as event director Sunder Iyer identified.
Yuki Bhambri received the singles title twice. Prajnesh Gunneswaran made it to the ultimate twice, and Ramkumar Ramanathan misplaced to Yuki in three units in 2017.
5 Indian pairs have bagged the doubles titles from 2014. Purav Raja, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth did it twice with completely different companions. Saketh Myneni, Divij Sharan, Sanam Singh and Anirudh Chandrasekar have all received the doubles title.
Curiously, Saketh and Ramkumar have received the doubles titles within the final two Challengers. They’ve their first spherical in opposition to second seeds Piotr Matuszewski and Matthew Romios this time.
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Whereas the singles area has solely Sumit, S Mukund, Ramkumar and Niki Poonacha for Indian presence, there are 11 Indian gamers within the doubles draw, which ought to guarantee a number of leisure for the followers on the dusty stadium.
Arjun Kadhe and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan open in opposition to Rithvik Bollipalli and Niki Poonacha.
Sriram Balaji and Andre Begemann of Germany should be wanting to set the document straight after having misplaced early within the final two tournaments.
Former world No.25 Vasek Pospisil in motion within the Maha Open
Challenger tennis event in Pune on Sunday
| Picture Credit score:
Kamesh Srinivasan
Former world No.25 Vasek Pospisil in motion within the Maha Open
Challenger tennis event in Pune on Sunday
| Picture Credit score:
Kamesh Srinivasan
Within the qualifying occasion, the younger Arnav Paparkar and Siddhant Banthia gave a superb account of their sport in opposition to Felix Gill of Britain and high seed Benjamin Bonzi of France respectively. The truth that Vasek Pospisil of Canada, the previous world No.4 in doubles and No.25 in singles needed to endure the qualifying occasion ought to give a touch concerning the top quality area.
The seedings: 1. Sumit Nagal, 2. Duje Ajdukovic (Cro), 3. AdamWalton (Aus), 4. ValentinVacherot (Mon), 5. Dalibor Svrcina (Cze), 6. Oliver Crawford (GBR), 7. Dane Sweeny (Aus), 8. Federico Gaio (Ita).