Indian star Sumit Nagal put up a strong fight against Serbian ace Vicktor Troicki before going down in the singles opening round match at the third edition of Tata Open Maharashtra at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune on Monday.
Nagal showed immense resistance before going down 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 against the former World No 12.
Comeback man Germany’s Cedrik-Marcel Stebe begun his campaign an impressive 6-3, 6-4 win to knock out last year’s finallist Ivo Karlovic. Fifth-seed Yuichi Sugita also made his way into the second round with a convincing 6-3, 6-0 win over Italian ace Thomas Fabbiano. The 28-year-old Stebe, who has been plagued with numerous injuries in his career, dominated the former World No 14 in the first set.
Karlovic, however, tried to gain some momentum with two points before the German wrapped up the set as well as the match. “My number one priority would be to stay healthy and keep myself away from any major injury. I started off bit slow. I knew I want to focus on my game. That kept me going,” Stebe, who is making his first appearance, said after the match.
Meanwhile, in the doubles opening round match, Italian pair of Paolo Lorenzi and Stefano Travaglia made a winning start as they thrashed Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis and Russian Evgeny Donskoy 6-3, 6-4 in straight sets.
The second day of the India’s premier ATP 250 event, will see the legendary Leander Paes in action during his doubles opening round match.
The eight-time Grand Slam doubles champion, who has partnered alongside Australian Matthew Ebden, will face challenge from Divij Sharan and New Zealand’s Artem Sitak.
The singles opening round will see two Indians, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Arjun Kadhe, in action. India No 1 Prajnesh will take on Germany’s Yannick Maden while local boy Kadhe will face Czech player Jiri Vesely.