PRESS RELEASE
Chennai February 4, 2024: India’s S. D. Prajwal Dev was the only Indian to make it out of the first round of qualifying at the Chennai Open ATP Challenger on Sunday after scoring a straight sets win over countryman Abhinav Shanmugam.
Prajwal Dev, seeded 10th in the qualifying draw, won 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 39 minutes to set up a second-round clash against fourth seed Vadym Ursu, who defeated India’s Manish Sureshkumar 7-6 (6), 6-3 in one hour and 49 minutes. Rethin Pranav India’s no.1 Junior and a promising player made his debut in an ATP Challenger, putting up a show of fluent stroke play before going down to Evgeny Karlovshkiy of Russia 4-6,6-7. Evegny had to save four set points in the second set before winning the match 7-4 in the tie break, the set and the match.
Ursu was joined by the top three seeds – No 1 seed Eric Vanshelboim, No 2 seed Bogdan Bobrov and No 3 seed Kris Van Wyk – in the second and final round of qualifying. It was a good day for the seeds, with 11 of the top 12 seeds winning their first-round matches.
The only exception was eighth seed Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine, of France, who was beaten 6-0, 6-0 by Alexey Zakharov.
The final round of the qualifying draw will take place on Monday February 5th along with the first batch of main draw matches at the SDAT Tennis Stadium in Chennai.
The Chennai Open ATP Challenger is being hosted with the support of the Government of Tamil Nadu and The Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu. The sponsors include Coromandel International (Platinum), Indian Bank (Gold), Kauvery Hospitals (Medical Partner) Lancor Group (Silver). The Park Hotels is the Hospitality Partner, ACT Fibernet is the Fibernet Partner, and Chennai Live is the Digital App partner.
The Chennai Open is the first in a series of ATP Challenger 100 events to be held in India. The tournaments to follow are scheduled to be held at Bengaluru, Pune, and Delhi. Entry for spectators is free and to make it more convenient, organizers have scheduled some matches under flood lights as well.
The Doubles finals will be played on Saturday February 10, 2024 while the singles final has been scheduled for Sunday February 11, 2024. The tournament is looking forward to the participation of the tennis fans from all over Chennai.
Chennai Open ATP Challenger Results
Sunday February 4, 2024; First Round of Singles Qualifying
(1) Eric Vanshelboim (UKR) def. Ray Ho (TPE) 6-3. 6-3
(2) Bogdan Bobrov def. Ishaque Eqbal (IND) 6-4, 6-4
(3) Kris Van Wyk (RSA) def. Adil Kalyanpur (IND) 6-1, 6-4
(4) Vadym Ursu (UKR) def. Manish Sureshkumar (IND) 7-6 (6), 6-3
(5) Jonas Forejtek (CZE) Vs Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND) 6-2, 6-2
(6) Yurii Dzhavakian (UKR) def. Bharath Nishok Kumaran (IND) 6-3, 6-1
(7) Olaf Pieczkowski (POL) def. Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) 6-3, 6-1
(8) Alexey Zakharov def. (8) Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine (FRA) 6-0, 6-0
(9) Evgeny Karlovskiy def. Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (IND) 6-4, 7-6 (4)
(10) S D Prajwal Dev (IND) def. Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam (IND) 6-3, 7-5
(11) Luca Castelnuovo (SUI) def. Karan Singh (IND) 6-4, 7-6 (4)
(12) Enzo Wallart (FRA) def, Lohithaksha Bathrinath (IND) 7-6 (2), 6-2