Chennai: Indian wildcard entrant Yuki Bhambri shocked higher ranked Karol Beck of Slovakia 6-2 6-3 to make the second round of the ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament here on Monday.
Displaying tremendous variations in pace and game plan, Bhambri, ranked 345 to Beck’s 101, eked out his second men’s tour win after defeating the Slovakian in 79 minutes in front of a sparse crowd at the Centre Court.
It was tough going for Bhambri as he won the match only on his seventh match point after Beck failed to put across the Indian’s cross-court forehand return.
The 19-year-old Bhambri, who brought about the first upset of this lone South Asian ATP tour event, will now meet top seeded Janko Tipservic of Serbia.
Bhambri, who had earlier won a first-round tour match in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2010, was in his elements today and played a waiting game to race to a 4-1 lead with a break in the fourth game and then led 5-2 with another break.
However, his serve was broken in the eighth. But the Delhi-boy held on to his smart serves and wrapped up the first set with his third break.
The Indian, a world junior title winner in Australia, won the match that was also helped by a series of unforced errors by Beck.
In the first set, Beck made few errors and created room for Bhambri to score points. Beck also fared poorly in winning points on serves but upped his game in the second set.
Bhambri maintained the momentum in the second set, broke his rival in the fourth game, held his fifth and played powerful tennis in the sixth to lead 5-1.
Beck tried to make a comeback in the seventh when Bhambri was up on winning the match at 6-2 but lost three match points. The Indian finally managed to win the ninth game and the match.
Yuki rues lack of financial support
A former world number one junior player Yuki Bhambri lamented the lack of financial support to young Indian tennis players and said it’s one of the biggest drawbacks the game is witnessing in the country.
Bhambri said that players needed full-fledged trainers and coaches like the senior pros to perform well on the tour. “Vishu (Vishnu Vardhan) nor me had the kind the support we need at this stage. You see the top guys travelling with not just the coaches but the trainers as well. It’s a luxury that one needs to in today’s game as you are playing two three hours a day and surviving on the tour playing about 50 or 60 matches in a year, you need somebody out there to help you out,” said Bhambri.
“It is one of the biggest drawbacks that we have in this country. It is all cricket, which gets the support. I feel the financial support is totally lacking for young tennis players in India,” he added. (PTI)