Tata Open Maharashtra: Winning start for Indian doubles teams

Indian pairings of Rohan Bopanna-Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni-Sasikumar Mukund began their campaign at the Tata Open Maharashtra with contrasting victories in their respective doubles opening round matches in Pune on Wednesday.

While the second-seed duo of Bopanna and Ramkumar secured 6-3, 3-6, (10-7) win against Jammie Cerretani and Nicholas Monroe, Myneni and Sasikumar registered a resounding 6-3, 6-4 win over compatriots Divij Sharan and Yuki Bhambri.

The star Indian pair of Bopanna and Ramkumar, which started the year with a title in Adelaide, made a strong start, taking 1-0 lead but failed to sustain the momentum as the American duo seized the opportunity to equal the score.

Bopanna and Ramkumar came back well in the tie-breaker to win the match.

Myneni and Mukund were awarded a main draw entry as an alternative pair after the duo of Denis Novak and Joao Sousa pulled out with the former suffering a thigh injury.

Teaming up for the first time, Myneni and Sasikumar pair looked in great touch as they pocketed the first set quite comfortably.

Divij and Bhambri, who had registered a semi-final finish during their maiden appearance at the tournament in 2018, regrouped quickly in the second set to take the early lead.

But, Myneni and Mukund did not let the momentum slip by securing successive points which put them 5-4 ahead in the second set and went on to bag the match comfortably in straight sets.

In another doubles opening round match, Jiri Vesely and Alexander Erler defeated the French duo of Hugo Grenier and Quentin Halys 7-6 (12-10), 6-4.     

In the singles second-round match, Portuguese Sousa pulled off an upset when he came back from one-set down to stun third-seed Gianluca Mager 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6-4) and enter the quarter-finals.

World No. 140 Aleksandar Vukic also made the higher ranked Italian rising star Lorenzo Musetti work hard for his victory. Vukic took the contest into the third set before the World No. 66 Musetti took charge of the game to complete a 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-3 victory.

Wildcard entrant local boy Arjun Kadhe, teaming up with Purav Raja, will face N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan, who made into the main draw as an alternative pair, in an all-Indian round-of-16 match.

On Thursday, Bhambri will look to secure a berth in the singles quarter-finals as takes on eight-seed Stefano Travaglia in a second-round match.

World No. 15 Russian Aslan Karatsev and defending champion Jiri Vesely, who received byes in the opening round, will also begin their challenge.