Delhi Open Challenger | Mukund steps it up in time to progress to second round

After a hesitant start when he had lost the first set, and had dropped serve in the first game of the second, Davis Cupper S. Mukund bounced back strongly to outwit lucky-loser Sascha Wayenburg of France 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the first round of the Dafanews $100,000 Delhi Open Challenger tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Tuesday.

Mukund had played his part well on the centre court during the recent Davis Cup tie against Togo. Even though the balls used were different this time, the 28-year-old got into his rhythm and showed considerable quickness of feet and sharpness of execution, not to forget the intensity of focus, in turning the fortunes around against a crafty opponent who had an explosive serve.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Mukund, who was ranked a career-best 229 in 2019, will play Michael Geerts of Belgium.

Ramkumar Ramanathan gave glimpses of his craft that had seen him reach a career best rank of 111, but got trapped in the dialogue with the umpire following a series of bad calls from his perspective, and lost his way against the energetic Dalibor Svrcina.

Ramkumar played a strong all-court game to win the second set 6-2, after losing the first 2-6, but slithered to defeat thereafter as he failed to win a game in the decider.

Ramkumar will get to focus on his doubles game, in partnership with Karan Singh.

In another lively singles match, Elias Ymer of Sweden outplayed fifth seed Elmer Moller of Denmark for the loss of four games.

The towering Valentin Vacherot, who had won the Challenger last year in Pune, warmed up for the tougher challenges ahead, by beating former World No. 35, qualifier Jiri Vesely of the Czechia for the loss of five games.

The results (first round): Vit Kopriva (Cze) bt Corentin Denolly (Fra) 6-3, 6-4; Dalibor Svrcina (Cze) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2, 2-6, 6-0; Hynek Barton (Cze) bt Rio Noguchi (Jpn) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Shintaro Mochizuki (Jpn) bt August Holmgren (Den) 6-3, 7-5; S. Mukund bt Sascha Wayenburg (Fra) 4-6, 6-2, 6-0; Jay Clarke (GBR) bt Masamichi Imamura (Jpn) 6-1, 6-4; Kyrian Jacquet (Fra) bt Sho Shimabukuro (Jpn) 6-1, 6-2; Andre Ilagan (USA) bt Marek Gengel (Cze) 6-2, 6-2; Valentin Vacherot (Mon) bt Jiri Vesely (Cze) 6-1, 6-4; Tristan Schoolkate (Aus) bt Ergi Kirkin (Tur) 6-0, 7-6(10); Elias Ymer (Swe) bt Elmer Moller (Den) 6-3, 6-1; Egor Agafonov bt Oleksandr Ovcharenko (Ukr) 6-3, 6-0; James McCabe (Aus) bt Enrico Dalla Valle (Ita) 2-6, 6-2, 6-3; Billy Harris (GBR) bt Eric Vanshelboim (Ukr) 6-1, 6-4.