Chennai, Feb 4: Third seed Duje Ajdukovic and the trio of Indian players, including Ramkumar Ramanathan and Mukund Sasikumar, were knocked out in the men’s singles opening round of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger here on Tuesday.
However, the tournament’s top seeds Billy Harris and Lloyd Harris started their campaigns on a winning note.
Ajdukovic, ranked No. 158 in the world, was defeated in three sets 2-6, 7-6, 2-6 by Sweden’s Elias Ymer, ranked No. 332 in the world.
It was not a good day for Indian singles players at the SDAT Tennis Stadium either with all the three local players in the main draw exiting in the first round.
The 21-year-old Karan Singh was defeated 3-6, 3-6 by France’s Kyrian Jacquet while Ramkumar went down to Great Britain’s Jay Clarke 3-6, 5-7. Sasikumar was able to force a decider before eventually falling to Alexey Zakharov 3-6, 7-6, 1-6.
In the doubles draw, Siddhant Banthia and Parikshit Somani won the all-Indian clash over Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta and Vishnu Vardhan 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 to book their spot in the quarter-finals. (PTI)
