It was a day of mixed fortunes for the Indians at the USD 25,000 Dharwad Open ATP Challengers Men's Tennis tournament held at the Rajadhyaksha Pavilion courts on Tuesday.
While Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna moved into the second round, Karan Rastogi, Raju Koushik and Vishal Uppal had to face defeat.
Prakash Amritraj had to sweat it out for 114 minutes before overcoming stiff resistance from Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2). However, it was an easy affair for Rohan Bopanna as got past the Netherland's Huta Galung Jesse 6-3, 6-0.
King came from behind to beat Uppal 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Lukasz Kubot of Poland had it easy beating Karan Rastogi 6-2, 6-2.
Lacko Lukas did not receive much resistance from Koushik. Lukas won 6-1, 6-0.
Denis Istomin faced some anxious moments in the second set against Vlaski Aleksander of Serbia before winning 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Victor Troicki beat Japan's Iwabuchi Satosh 6-3, 6-2.
Winners of Chikmagalur leg Ratiwatana brothers-Sonchat and Sanchai-who had won the doubles title in Dharwad in 2003 started off their campaign with an impressive 6-4, 6-0 win over India's Rajgopalan and Vishnu Vardhan.
In other doubles matches, Reishchick Sebestian (Germany) and Victor Troicki (Serbia) beat Indians Ravishankar Pathanjali and Shridhar Vinod 6-4, 6-3, Capkovic Kamili (Slovakia) and Lacko Lukas (Slovakia) beat Victor Bruthans (Slovakia) and Cruciat Adrian (Romania) 6-3, 6-4 and Henry Adgei Darko (Ghana) and Thompson Nathan (USA) beat India's Nandakumar Kiran and P Chandrashekhar 6-1,6-1.
While Chikmagalur leg winner Udamchoke Danai of Thailand would face Luke Bourgeois of Australia tomorrow, Indians Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna would play their first round doubles match against fellow countrymen Sunilkumar Sipaeya and Vishal Uppal.
