PRESS RELEASE

Chennai February 8, 2024: India’s Sasikumar Mukund made the most of the wildcard opportunity provided to him by the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association by reaching the singles quarter-finals at the Chennai Open ATP Challenger, being played at the SDAT Stadium, on Thursday. 

Mukund, who reached the final of an ITF event in Chennai two weeks ago, defeated Tunisia’s Moez Echargui 7-6, 6-3 to set up a clash against third seed Dalibor Svrcina. The Czech won a rollercoaster second-round clash against Evgeny Donskoy 6-2, 0-6, 6-2. 

The singles draw lost two seeds on Thursday with fourth seed Ugo Blanchet, of France, going down to Chinese Taipei’s Chun Hsin Tseng 0-6, 6-4, 2-6 and sixth seed Oriol Roca Batalla falling 4-6, 6-7 to Italy’s Enrico Dalla Valle. 

In the doubles draw, two Indian teams advanced to the semi-finals. Fourth seeds Rithvik Choudary Bollipali/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha defeated fellow Indians Parikshit Somani/ Manish Sureshkumar 5-7, 6-1, 10-7 while Saketh Myneni/ Ramkumar Ramanathan got past French duo Dan Added/ Ugo Blanchet 4-6, 6-4, 10-6. 

The top seed in the doubles event, India’s N. Sriram Balaji and Germany’s Andre Begemann were knocked out by all-German duo Jakob Schnaitter/ Mark Wallner 3-6, 4-6. 

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, Thursday February 8, 2024 

Singles Second Round 

[3] Dalibor Svrcina (CZE) def. Evgeny Donskoy 6-2, 0-6, 6-2 

Chun Hsin Tseng (TPE) def. [4] Ugo Blanchet (FRA) 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 

Enrico Dalla Valle (ITA) def. [6] Oriol Roca Batalla (ESP) 6-4, 7-6 

[WC] Sasikumar Mukund (IND) def. Moez Echargui (TUN) 7-6, 6-3 

Doubles Quarter-Finals 

Jakob Schnaitter (GER)/ Mark Wallner (GER) def. [1] N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Andre Begemann (GER) 6-3, 6-4 

[2] Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Kaito Uesugi (JPN) def. Yu Hsiou Hsu (TPE)/ Arjun Kadhe (IND) 7-5, 6-3 

[4] Rithvik Choudary Bollipali (IND)/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) def. [WC] Parikshit Somani (IND)/ Manish Sureshkumar (IND) 5-7, 6-1, 10-7 

Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) def. Dan Added (FRA)/ Ugo Blanchet (FRA) 4-6, 6-4, 10-6