Press Release – 11th November, 2019
Pune, November 11 : India’s Manish Sureshkumar , Anirudh Chandrasekar, Chandril Sood and Aryan Goveas were amongst 4 out of 9 Indians who made it to the second round in the singles on the opening day at the KPIT MSLTA Challenger.
In matches with Indian players in action, Manish Sureshkumar outwitted wildcard Anvit Bendre 6-2,6-0 , while another upcoming player Anirudh Chandrasekar came back from loss of the first set to get the better of Kazakhstan’s Timur Khabibulin 4-6,6-4,6-3 in a 1 hour 36 minute match which saw 23 aces from both players. In a one sided encounter Chandril Sood rallied past wildcard entrant Dhruva Mulye of USA 6-1,6-3 in just over an hour.
In the best match of the day Maharashtra boy and wildcard Aryan Goveas ranked 867 justified the faith of the organisers, scoring a 6-4,7-6(4) win against 480th ranked German Tobias Simon in 1 hour 19 minute match, Goveas scored his first win in three attempts as a wildcard in the event.
“I’m thrilled and really played well , this win will do me a lot of good”, said Goveas who earned 3 ATP points today for the win. Goveas served 11 aces to the German’s 15 in a fast paced match played on the centre court. Goveas managed to stave off 2 breakpoints in the 7th game of the second set.
In another interesting match Yusuke. Takahashi of Japan ranked 453 was given a run for the money by former National Champion Siddarth Vishwakarma ranked 1700 in the world before winning 6-0,3-6,6-3 in 1 hour 38 minute match. Ukrainian Danylo Kalenichenko came through a close first set to win 7-6(3) 6-3 against reigining national champion Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha. In another first round match Roman Blokhin of Russia ended the challenge of Lakshit Sood 6-4 6-2.
Pune boy and wildcard Tejas Chaukulkar ensured one of the two spots in the main draw , as he trounced top seeded Yash Chaurasia 6-3,6-4 , in the second qualifying match Dalwinder Singh registered an easy win over practice partner Suraj Prabodh winning 6-4 6-3. With two Indian qualifiers making it and Kaza Vinayak Sharma making it to the main draw as the alternate player. The total number of Indians in the main draw reached 22, the highest ever in the history of Challenger events.
Day 1 Results –
1st Round –
Roman Blokhin(RUS) bt [WC] Lakshit. Sood (IND) 6-4,6-2
Manish Sureshkumar(IND) bt [WC] Anvit Bendre (IND) 6-2,6-0
Danylo Kalenichenko(UKR) bt Niki. Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) 7-6(3),6-3
[WC] Aryan. Goveas(IND) bt Tobias Simon (GER) 6-4.7-6(4)
Anirudh Chandrasekar(IND) bt Timur Khabibulin(KAZ) 4-6,6-4,6-3
Yusuke. Takahashi(JPN) bt Siddharth Vishwakarma(IND) 6-0,3-6,6-3
Chandril. Sood(IND) [WC] bt Dhruva Mulye(USA) 6-1,6-3
Qualifying –
[WC] Tejas. Chaukulkar(IND) bt [1] Yash Chaurasia(IND) 6-3,6-4
Dalwinder Singh(IND) bt Suraj Prabodh(IND) 6-4,6-3
