PRESS RELEASE

Chennai February 7, 2024: Second seed Sumit Nagal put on a commanding performance to defeat Italy’s Giovanni Fonio in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger being held at the SDAT Stadium. 

Nagal stroking with confidence and serving with zest and purpose needed one hour and 18 minutes to beat Giovanni Fonio 7-5, 6-2 and set up a clash with Czech Dominik Palan, who defeated another Italian Samuel Vincent Ruggeri 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. 

Top seed Luca Nardi, who qualified for the ATP Next Gen Finals last year, defeated former top 20 player Bernard Tomic 7-5, 6-3. Luca maintained his calm while Bernard lapsed in concentration in the closing stages of the first set. Luca started the second set strongly and maintained the upper hand throughout to win in straight sets. The Italian will next face countryman Stefano Napolitano, who eased past Frenchman Dan Added 6-2, 6-1. 

Local players stole the spotlight in the doubles with as many as eight Indians, including three all-Indian teams, winning their first round matches to reach the quarter-finals. Saketh Myneni/ Ramkumar Ramanathan pulled off the big upset of the day, ousting the third seeds Ray Ho/ Piotr Matuszewski 7-6 (3), 6-4. 

Fourth seeds Rithvik Choudary Bollipal/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and the wildcard team of Parikshit Somani / Manish Sureshkumar also won to set up a quarter-final clash, assuring at least one Indian pair will reach the semi-finals. 

Sriram Balaji, seeded No 1 in the doubles draw along with German partner Andre Begemann, and Arjun Kadhe, teaming up with Chinese Taipei’s Yu Hsiou Hsu, also won their matches on Wednesday. 

Second round singles matches will continue on Thursday with India’s Sasikumar Mukund facing off against Tunisia’s Moez Echargui, while the doubles event will move into the quarter-final stage. 

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. 

Saketh Myneni / Ramkumar Ramanathan pulled off the big upset, ousting third seeds Ray Ho (TPE)/ Piotr Matuszewski (POL) 7-6 (3), 6-4. 

Chennai Open ATP Challenger Results, Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Singles First Round 

[1] Luca Nardi (ITA) def. Bernard Tomic (AUS) 7-5, 6-3 

[2] Sumit Nagal (IND) def. Giovanni Fonio (ITA) 7-5, 6-2 

[5] Stefano Napolitano (ITA) def. Dan Added (FRA) 6-2, 6-1 

Dominik Palan (CZE) def. Samuel Vincent Ruggeri (ITA) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 

Doubles First Round 

[1] N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Andre Begemann (GER) def. Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine (FRA)/ 

Maxime Janvier (FRA) 6-3, 6-2 

[2] Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Kaito Uesugi (JPN) def. S D Prajwal Dev (IND)/ Nitin Kumar Sinha (IND) 3-6, 6-4, 11-9 

Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) def. [3] Ray Ho (TPE)/ Piotr Matuszewski (POL) 7-6 (3), 6-4 

[4] Rithvik Choudary Bollipali (IND)/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) def. Stefano Napolitano (ITA)/ Oriol Roca Batalla (ESP) 6-2, 6-1 

Yu Hsiou Hsu (TPE)/ Arjun Kadhe (IND) def. Francis Casey Alcantara (PHI)/ Kaichi Uchida (JPN) 6-4, 6-4 

[WC] Parikshit Somani (IND)/ Manish Sureshkumar (IND) def. Moez Echargui (TUN)/ Giovanni Fonio (ITA) 2-6, 6-2, 10-2 

Dan Added (FRA)/ Ugo Blanchet (FRA) def. Maks Kasnikowski (POL)/ Eric Vanshelboim (UKR) 6-4, 6-4 

Jakob Schnaitter (GER)/ Mark Wallner (GER) def. Enrico Dalla Valle (ITA)/ Luca Nardi (ITA) 6-3, 7-6