It turned out to be a rather mundane day as most of the seeded players were given rest on the opening day of the MCC-S.R. Subramaniam Memorial International Tennis Federation $10,000 men’s tournament at the TNTA-Egmore courts here on Monday.
The lone seed to play on a hot and humid day, Yannick Vandenbulcke of Belgium, seeded eighth, lost to Joss Espasandin of Switzerland 6-2, 6-4.
The Swiss will meet Sidharth Rawat of India in the second round. Sidharth defeated Vivek Shokeen 7-6 (3), 2-0 before Vivek conceded complaining of symptoms of dehydration.
Similarly, Abhijeet Tiwari, too, pulled out midway due to dehydration.
In the third set trailing 2-0, the Indian gave up.
The scoreline 3-6, 7-6(3), 2-0 meant the Austrian, on his maiden visit to India — he did play in the Madurai leg — entered the pre-quarterfinals, which has been his best performance so far.
Ashwin Vijayragavan posted a convincing 6-0, 6-2 victory over Bruno Pedroso of Portugal to advance to the last 16 stage.
The results (first round, Indians unless mentioned): Singles: Saurabh Patil bt Kunal Anand 7-5, 7-5; Sidharth Rawat bt Vivek Shokeen 7-6(3), 2-0 (retd.); Ashwin Vijayragavan bt Bruno Pedrosa (Por) 6-0, 6-2; Peter Goldsteiner (Aut) bt Abhijeet Tiwari 3-6, 7-6(3), 2-0 (retd.); Andre Gaspar Murta (Por) bt Mark Vervoort (Ned) 7-6 (4), 6-2; Joss Espasandin (Sui) bt Y. Vandenbulcke (Bel) 6-2, 6-4.
Doubles: Sriram Balaji P. Vignesh bt Ramkumar Ramanathan Vinod Sridhar 6-4, 6-1; Elwin Antony Fariz Mohammed bt Neeraj Elangovan Rishabdev Raman 7-5, 6-4; Vijayant Malik Kaza Vinayak Sharma bt Saurabh Patil Matthieu Vierin (Ita) 6-2, 0-6, 10-4.
Keywords: MCC-S.R. Subramaniam Memorial International Tennis Federation tournament
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