Prajnesh made to work by Maden, Kadhe loses

Pune, February 4

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India’s No. 1 singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran stamped his authority with a straight-set victory over Germany’s Yannick Maden in the opening round of the Tata Open Maharashtra tennis tournament here today.

Gunneswaran held his nerves as both the sets went into tie-breakers before the Indian wrapped up the hard-fought contest 7-6(4) 7-6(5) to begin his campaign on a winning note.

Local boy Arjun Kadhe suffered a 2-6 4-6 defeat at the hands of Jiri Vesley. Kadhe, who received a wild card entry, showed some fight in the second set but the 26-year-old Czech player wrapped up the match convincingly.

India’s Rohan Bopanna and Sumit Nagal will be in action on the third day of the tournament tomorrow as they begin their quest for the doubles title. Bopanna and Kadhe will take on the French pair of Benoit Paire and Antonie Hoang.

Nagal and Egor Gerasimov of Belarus will face the Indian pair of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Purav Raja. Nagal had lost to Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in the singles category yesterday.