It was a mixed day for the Indians in the qualification rounds at the Maharashtra Open in Pune, the country’s only ATP 250 tournament, as Saketh Myneni progressed while Sasi Kumar Mukund lost in straight sets.
Myneni managed to edge past Jason Jung of Taiwan in three sets, 1-6, 7-5, 2-6. While the other wild card entrant in Singles Qualifiers, Sasi Kumar Mukund, lost to the Italian Gianluigi Quinzi 6-1,6-1.
The biggest upset of the day came in the form of Ruben Bemelmans who lost to ATP World No. 184 Sebastian Ofner in three sets 7-5, 3-6, 1-6. Thiago Monteiro of Brazil who also went through the qualifying stage last year got the better of World No. 171 Daniel Brands in two sets 7-6, 7-5.
Simone Bolelli of Italy didn’t have to sweat much as he also made his way to the final qualifying round defeating Brayden Schnur of Canada. The other Canadian and top seed, Felix Auger Aliassime had to dig deep to beat a much higher-ranked Marcelo Arevalo.
Here are the results from Day 1- Singles Qualifiers
(2) R. Bemelmans lost to S. Ofner 7-5, 3-6, 1-6
(3) T. Monteiro beat D. Brands 7-6, 7-5
B. Schnur lost to (5) S. Bolelli 3-6, 6-7
(1) F. Auger Aliassime beat M. Arevalo 6-7, 6-1, 3-2 (Retd.)
S. Mukund lost to (7) G. Quinzi 1-6, 1-6
A. Martin lost to (6) A. Hoang 1-6, 2-6
(4) J. Jung lost to S. Myneni 1-6, 7-5, 2-6
D. Gimeno-Traver lost to (8)E. Gerasimov 3-6, 6-3, 2-6