Prajnesh loses to Soon-woo, exits from Tata Open

Prajnesh lost 3-6, 6-7(5) against the Korean at the Mhalunge Balewadi Stadium. Despite losing the first set, the India No.1 put a brilliant show in the second in an attempt to make a comeback. However, World No.88 Soon-woo held his nerve in the tie-breaker to wrap up the contest and seal a berth in the last eight round.

It is to be noted Prajnesh, who came into South Asia’s only ATP Tour tournament with a direct entry in the main draw, denied his opponent match points on a couple of occasions. With Prajnesh’s loss in the Round-of-16, India’s challenge came to an end in singles. Earlier Sumit Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sasikumar Mukund and Arjun Kadhe lost their respective matches in the opening round.

In another last 16 singles match, Australia’s James Duckworth came up with a thrilling three-set 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 6-3 win over Taro Daniel (Japan). Despite losing the first set, the sixth-seeded Duckworth made timely comeback to win the hard-fought second set. The Australian continued the momentum to win the decider easily to complete victory.

In doubles, the pairing of Romain Arneodo (Monaco) and Andre Begemann (Germany) caused a major upset as they knocked out the top-seeded combination of Robin Haase (Netherlands) and Robert Lindstedt (Sweden) with a thrashing 6-3, 6-3 success to enter the semi-finals.

However, third-seeded Jonathan Erlich (Israel) and Andrei Vasilevski (Belarus) made their way into the last four round with a 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 win over Italian duo of Stefano Travaglia and Paolo Lorenzi.