Bengaluru Open: Leander Paes advances to the second round

A couple of moments before the first round of doubles match in Bengaluru open, Leander Paes entered the court and the fans just couldn’t stop cheering. The aura that Paes carries while on the court is ample proof of his achievements and his legacy. This tournament, as some might say, maybe his last ATP in the Indian soil.

Nevertheless, Paes has entered the second round with his Australian partner, Matthew Ebden. The Indo-Aussie pair registered a scoreline of 7-6 6-4 to defeat Blaz Rola and Zhizhen Zhang. Abden though had to dig deep as he had lost a three-hour contest earlier in the day against Egyptian Mohamed Safat in the singles category.

In men's singles, India's top ranked Prajnesh Gunneswaran, had to struggle a bit against German Sebastian Fanselow but could eventually had to make his way to the quarterfinals. It was a surprise to see Prajesh commit errors against Fanselow as the German is ranked 609 in the world. The Indian could have easily settled after getting a break in the second set with 3-1 lead but he lost the services due to errors and lost the set. In the final set both the players started to test each other strengths and by the seventh game, the German lost his serve and with a final scoreline of 6-2 4-6 6-4 Gunneswaran emerged as the winner.

Other Indians who moved ahead in the tournament on the day were Ramanathan Ramkumar and Sidharth Rawat. Ramkumar blanked fellow Indian Abhinva Sanjeev Shanmugham 6-1 6-3 and Rawat recorded a scoreline of 6-2 6-2 to beat Rishi Reddy.