Tennis: Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Saketh Myneni and Arjun Kadhe enter third round of Chennai Open

Three Indians, led by top-seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran powered their way to the third round of the Chennai Open in Chennai on Wednesday. Gunneswaran beat Daniel Altmaier of Germany 6-4, 6-4, PTI reported.

He broke serve in the ninth game and held confidently to capture the opening set. In the second set, Gunneswaran broke Altmaier in the very first game which proved to be the decisive.

The Indian then held serve throughout the match with a great degree of comfort to close out the set 6-4, and with it, the match. Eleventh seed Saketh Myneni then beat Chennai-based N Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the next round.

Arjun Kadhe hammered seven aces to register an upset win over thirteenth seed Jose Hernandez-Fernandes of the Dominican Republic in two relatively easy sets 6-3, 6-2. On Court 1, second seed Corentin Moutet of France was stretched for over two and a half hours by Luke Saville of Australia before the former sealed the match.

James Duckworth, the seventh seed from Australia, quelled Ivan Gakhov of Russia 7-6(2), 7-5. Brydan Klein of Great Britain to upset twelfth seed Maverick Banes of Australia in straight sets. Four Indians will be in the fray in the singles event.

Top seed Gunneswaran will take on compatriot Arjun Kadhe, Myneni will clash with Alejandro Daviddovich Fokina of Spain and Sasikumar Mukund will take on third seed Mohamed Safwat of Egypt.

Ramkumar Ramanathan, meanwhile, lost his first round match against Uzbekistan’s Uladzimir Ignatik in the first round of the Budapest Challenger.

Results: Mens Singles Main Draw II Round:Arjun Kadhe (IND) bt [13] Jose Hernandez-Fernandez (DOM)6-3, 6-2, [2]CorentinMoutet (FRA)bt Luke Saville (AUS) 6-2, 6-7(1), 6-4, (4] Gianluca Mager (ITA) bt Collin Altamirano (USA)6-3, 6-1 [14] Laurynas Grigelis (LTU) bt Nam Hoang Ly (VIE)4-6, 6-2, 6-1 [11] Saketh Myneni (IND) bt [WC] NPrashanth (IND)6-4, 6-3; James Duckworth (AUS) bt [Alt] Ivan Gakhov (RUS) 7-6(2), 7-5, [6] Soonwoo Kwon (KOR) bt [Q] Alexander Zhurbin (RUS)6-1, 6-2, [9] Gastao Elias (POR) bt Blake Ellis (AUS)6-2, 7-6(4); [1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Daniel Altmaier (GER) 6-4, 6-4, BrydanKlein (GBR) bt [12] Maverick Banes (AUS) 6-4, 6-1.