Wild card Sumit Nagal got off to a strong start by beating Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of the PMR Open $130,000 Challenger tennis tournament at the Balewadi Stadium on Tuesday.
In the pre-quarterfinals, Sumit will play qualifier Dominik Palan of Czech Republic who beat sixth seed Dalibor Svrcina 6-4, 7-6(4).
Prajnesh Gunneswaran went down to top seed James Duckworth, after winning the first set.
Wild card Mukund Sasikumar ran into the champion of the last two Challengers in Chennai and Bengaluru, third seed Max Purcell of Australia, and managed to win the first set.
The other wild card Arjun Kadhe was beaten in straight sets by Maximilian Neuchrist of Austia.
The results: First round: James Duckworth (Aus) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3; Maximilian Neuchrist (Aut) bt Arjun Kadhe 6-2, 7-5; Max Purcell bt Mukund Sasikumar 3-6, 6-3, 6-0; Dimitar Kuzmanov (Bul) bt Makoto Ochi (Jpn) 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-2; Dane Sweeny (Aus) bt Jay Clarke (GBR) 6-0, 6-2; Francesco Maestrelli (Ita) bt Marc Polmans (Aus) 1-6, 6-1, 6-2; Rio Noguchi (Jpn) bt Marek Gengel (Cze) 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(1); Nikola Milojevic (Srb) bt Frederico Ferreira Silva (Por) 6-7(1), 7-6(5), 6-4; Lorenzo Giustino (Ita) bt Nam Hoang Ly (Vie) 6-1, 6-1; Luca Nardi (Ita) bt Benjamin Lock (Zim) 6-1, 7-5; Dominik Palan (Cze) bt Dalibor Svrcina (Cze) 6-4, 7-6(4); Sumit Nagal bt Yasutaka Uchiyama (Jpn) 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4; Hamad Medjedovic (Srb) bt Hiroki Moriya (Jpn) 6-3, 6-4.
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