Ramkumar-Purav enter quarterfinals

Pune, February 5

Young Sasi Mukund fought tooth and nail in the second set before going down against Taro Daniel, leaving Prajnesh Gunneswaran as the only Indian left in the men’s singles man draw of the Tata Open Maharashtra.

The 23-year-old Indian youngster, who was handed a wildcard entry, lost 2-6 6-7 (7) in the opening round.

“Making a main draw debut in Pune is a very special for me. Playing here has given me the experience of playing in front of the crowd. I got broken too early in the sets. I had a chance with five-all. It’s not because of that one break-point why I lost. It was because of all the points I played,” said Mukund, who played in the qualifying round in the last two editions of India’s premier ATP 250 event.

Ramanathan-Raja vs Paes-Ebden

The Indian pair of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Purav Raja made it to the doubles quarterfinals with a hard-fought 7-6 (6) 6-3 win over Sumit Nagal and his partner Egor Gerasimov of Belarus. They will take on Leander Paes and Matthew Ebden.

Robin Haase of the Netherlands and Sweden’s Robert Lindstedt had to work hard for a 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 10-8 win over the Dutch pair of Sander Arends and David Pel. — PTI