Bengaluru, Feb 11 (PTI) Indian tennis players endured a tough day at the Bengaluru Open as five home players made an early exit from the men’s singles qualifying event, including Karan Singh, Niki Poonacha and Sasikumar Mukund, here Sunday.
While wild card entrant 20-year-old Karan fought his heart out against second seed Dan Added of France before losing 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-7(9) in the opening round that lasted two hours and 46 minutes, Mukund fell 4-6, 3-6 to fourth seed Italian S Vincent Ruggeri.
Former national champion Siddarth Vishwakarma, who entered the field as an alternate, also battled hard against seventh seed Ukrainian Eric Vanshelboim but eventually lost 4-6, 4-6 as the home players endured a tough day at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) Stadium.
Two more Indian wild cards — Poonacha and Adil Kalyanpur — also could not make the most of the opportunity, making an early exit.
Poonacha, who made a winning Davis Cup debut last week in Islamabad, exited the event with a 3-6, 4-6 defeat against top seed Australian Bernard Tomic, who was once a top-20 player on the Tour.
Adil lost 4-6, 3-6 to eighth seed Korean Yun Seong Chung.
Moving to the next round were French Enzo Wallart and South African Kris Van Wyk. Wallart set aside the challenge of Japanese sixth seed Kaichi Uchida, while Van Wyk pushed out Poland’s Olaf Pieczkowski 6-3 6-3.
The main draw will begin on Monday. The singles final will be played on February 18. PTI ATK AT
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