Leander paces it
Gunneswaran off to a flying start at the Tata Open
Pune, Feb. 4: Legendary Leander Paes marked his arrival at the third edition of Tata Open Mahrashtra with a thumping 6-2, 7-6 (75) win over compatriot Divij Sharan in the doubles opening round match at Mhalunge Balewadi Stadium in Pune on Tuesday.
Playing alongside Australian partner Matthew Ebden, eighttime doubles Grand Slam Champion Paes, who is playing his last tournament in India, showed his class during his clinical victory against defending champion and secondseed Sharan, who was playing alongside New Zealand’s Artem Sitak.
Earlier, India No.1 Prajnesh Gunneswaran stamped his authority at home with a sensational straight sets victory against Germany’s Yannick Maden in the singles opening round match.
The Indian star Gunneswaran held his nerves throughout the match as both the sets went into tie-breakers before the Indian wrapped up the hard-fought contest
7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5) to begin his campaign on a winning note.
In the other singles opening round match local boy Arjun Kadhe suffered a straight-set 6-2,
6-4 defeat at the hands of Jiri Vesley.
Playing in front of home crowd, Kadhe, who received a wild card entry into the main draw, tried to make a comeback into the match with some good fight in the second set but it was too late as the 26year-old Czech player wrapped up the match convincingly.
India’s Rohan Bopanna and Sumit Nagal will be key attraction on the third day of the tournament as they will begin their quest for the doubles title on Wednesday.
The defending champion Rohan Bopanna, who will partner alongside Kadhe, will take on French pair of Benoit Paire and Antonie Hoang. While, Nagal and his partner Egor Gerasimov of Belarus will face Indian pair of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Purav Raja in the opening round match.
Just a day after getting knocked out in the singles opening round, India’s rising star Nagal will be back in action in Pune as he included in the doubles main draw following the withdrawal of Peter Gojowczyk due to injury. The 22-year-old Nagal, who went down 6-2, 6-7, 6-1 against Serbian ace Viktor Troicki on Monday, will replace the German pair of GojowczykCedrik-Marcel Stebe in the main draw. James Duckworth marked his arrival with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 win over Gojowczyk.