Prajwal to face Nagal in first round at ATP Chennai

CHENNAI: India’s SD Prajwal Dev secured a main draw berth by qualifying for the Chennai Open ATP Challenger at the SDAT Stadium on Monday.

Seeded 10th in the qualifying draw, Prajwal upset the fourth seed Vadym Ursu, of Ukraine, 6-3, 6-3 to secure one of the qualifying berths in the 32-player main draw and he will now face Sumit Nagal, seeded second, on Tuesday.

Top seed Eric Vanshelboim and second seed Bogdan Bobrov were among the others who advanced to the main draw.

Monday also saw the start of the first-round main draw matches with fifth seed Stefano Napolitano scoring a 6-1, 6-2 win over Japan’s Kaichi Uchida.

Czech Republic’s Dominik Palan, Giovanni Fonio and France’s Dan Addad and Italy’s also won first round main draw matches to move into the last 16.

Dan’s opponent Akira Santillan of Australia conceded when he lost balance and fell down while chasing a wide forehand and hurt his left knee which he had injured much before.

Tuesday will see three Indians in main draw singles action, Besides Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sasikumar Mukund will also play their first-round singles matches.

Chennai Open ATP Challenger results, Monday:

Singles Main Draw First Round

• Stefano Napolitano (ITA) def. Kaichi Uchida (JPN) 6-1, 6-2

• Dominik Palan (CZE)

def. Arthur Weber (FRA) 6-1, 6-4

• Dan Added (FRA) def. Akira Santillan (AUS) 2-6, 6-4, 4-1 retd.

• Giovanni Fonio (ITA) def. Maxime Janvier (FRA) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5

Second Round of Singles Qualifying

• Eric Vanshelboim (UKR) def. Evgeny Karlovskiy 6-2, 6-4

• Bogdan Bobrov def. Enzo Wallart (FRA) 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (3)

• Olaf Pieczkowski (POL) def. Kris Van Wyk (RSA) 6-4, 6-3

• S D Prajwal Dev (IND) def. Vadym Ursu (UKR) 6-3, 6-3

• Jonas Forejtek (CZE) def. Luca Castelnuovo (SUI) 6-4, 6-3

• Alexey Zakharov def. Yurii Dzhavakian (UKR) 6-3, 6-3