8th January
Picture credits – IFS Raman Kalika
Though the top seed Erhard Mathys(FRA) had it easy against compatriot Kouzmine Constantin, other three of four top seeds fell like nine pins in the first round of ITF M25, Arera Club Bhopal. Last year’s winner and runners up both were eliminated in the first round itself in what seems like a tournament of upsets. Second seed Oliver Crawford and third seed Bogdon Bobrov were eliminated by unseeded Sidharth Rawat(IND) and Fomin Sergey (UZB). Thus three top seeds stand eliminated by the second day of the tournament.
Last year’s winner Bogdon Bobrov tamely bowed out against unseeded Uzbek Sergey Fomin in straight sets 6-1 6-1
In the tough match against the volatile Oliver Crawford, Siddharth Rawat was full of calm and composure and kept the pressure up on the much vocal opponent. Very methodically, he tackled the aggressive Crawford wrapping up match 6-4,6-7, 6-0 to move to the second round of sixteen.
In another tense match, India’s Vishnu Vardhan lost out to Eric Vanshelboim after being one set up in the first set 7-6, 1-6, 2-6. Though Vishnu Vardhan played an attacking game early on and was able to sail through the first set, he was unable to maintain the momentum in the later sets and conceded the match to the sixth seed.
There would be eight singles matches to qualify for quarter finals and four doubles quarterfinal matches tomorrow.
In singles players from eight nations including France(1), Switzerland(1), Ukraine
(3), GBR (1), Japan (2), Russia (2), Uzbekistan (1).
Dev Javia, Sidhartha Vishwakarma, SD Prajwal Dev, Rohan Mehra and Sidharth
Rawat will take India’s hope in the round of sixteen to qualify for the quarter finals.
