Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna made it to the second round of the qualifying event of the USD 450,000 Chennai Open after a 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 victory over Michel Koning of the Netherlands in Chennai on Saturday.
Six Indians, out of 18 who figured in the qualifying draw of 32, made it to the second round.
Apart from Bopanna, Rohan Gajjar, Ranjeet Murugesan, Sanam Singh, N Sriram Balaji and Vignesh Murugesan also won their first round matches.
Bopanna, ranked 333rd in the world, lost the first set 6-7 (3) mainly due to some loose shots from the baseline. He tightened his game in the next two sets but his sixth seeded opponent proved to be a hard nut to crack and Bopanna had to settle the issue in tie breaks.
In the second round, Bopanna will take on Chandigarh-born US collegian Sanam Singh who beat Yuki Bambri 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Results: (Round 1 Qualifiers)
Michael Berrer (GER) bt Rohan Gide (IND) 6-1, 6-2; Rohan Gajjar (IND) bt Abhijeet Tiwari (IND) 6-0, 2-6, 7-6 (2); Yuichi Sugita (JPN) bt Pavol Cervenak (SVK) 6-1, 6-2; Ranjeet Murugesan (IND) bt Vikram Reddy (IND) 7-6, 6-2; Sanam Singh (IND) bt Yuki Bambri (IND) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Michel Koning (NED) 6-7, 7-6, 7-6; Flavio Copolla (ITA) bt Navdeep Singh (IND) 6-4, 6-3; Alex Satschko (GER) bt Lovro Zovko (CRO) 6-2, 7-5; Danai Udomchoke (THA) bt N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) 6-4, 6-2; Louk Sorensen (IRL) bt Vinod Sridhar (IND) 6-0, 6-4; N Srirambalaji (IND) bt Ronak Manuja (IND) 6-2, 6-2; Kyu Tae Im (KOR) bt Naveen Sai (IND) 6-0, 6-0; Rajeev Ram (USA) bt Tatsuma Ito (JPN) 6-4, 6-2; Oliver Marach (AUT) bt Ashutosh Singh (IND) 6-3, 6-3; Alexandre Kudryavtsev (RUS) bt Sunil Kumar (IND) 6-4, 7-5; Vignesh Murugesan (IND) bt Purav Raja (IND) 3-6, 4-2 (retd).