Bengaluru Open: Prajnesh advances, Ramkumar exits

Prajnesh Gunneswaran emerged as the only Indian to manage a win in the singles main draw of the Bengaluru Open as Ramkumar Ramanathan and Arjun Kadhe made first-round exits, along with two other home players, here on Tuesday.

The left-handed Gunneswaran, who returned aggressively, beat French player Mathias Bourgue 7-6(4) 6-2 in the opening round of the USD 53,120 ATP Challenger tournament.

However, Ramkumar, who won the doubles trophy in Pune last week with Rohan Bopanna, squandered a one-set advantage to lose 6-3 0-6 5-7 to Australia's Max Purcell in his opening round.

Kadhe, who had qualified for the main draw, struggled with his serve and lost his match 16 2-6 to Turkey's Altug Celikbilek.

Wild card S D Prajwal Dev lost 2-6 2-6 to Bulgaria's Dimitar Kuzmanov.

Rishi Reddy, another wild card entrant, lost 1-6 3-6 to sixth seed Frenchman Enzo Couacaud.

Prajnesh is now the only Indian surviving in the singles draw as Saketh Myneni has already exited the event following his first-round defeat on Monday.

In the doubles, the Indian pair of Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan moved to the quarterfinals after the Turkish team of Altug Celikbilek and Cem Ilkel retired midway into the contest. The Indians were leading 3-1 at the time.