CHENNAI: The winter sun was blaring as the breeze across the stadium was trying to keep players cool in the afternoon. India top singles player and second seeded here at the Chennai Open ATP Challenger, Sumit Nagal was ploughing through Italy’s Giovanni Fonio in the first set on Wednesday.
There were crisp shots as both the players were trying to rest control of the first set. Nagal, fresh from a memorable outing at the Australian Open, managed to eke out a 7-5 win. The resistance of the Italian was broken. The second set turned academic as Nagal breezed through to a 6-2 win.
Nagal stroking with confidence and serving with zest and purpose needed one hour and 18 minutes to beat Fonio. He will meet Czech Dominik Palan, who defeated another Italian Samuel Vincent Ruggeri 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, in the quarterfinals next. Top seed Luca Nardi, who qualified for the ATP Next Gen Finals last year, defeated former world top 20 player Bernard Tomic 7-5, 6-3. Luca maintained his calm while Bernard lapsed in concentration inthe closing stages of the first set.
Luca started the second set strongly and maintained the upperhand throughout to win in straight sets. The Italian will next face countryman Stefano Napolitano, who eased past Frenchman Dan Added 6-2, 6-1. Local players stole the spotlight in the doubles with as many as eight Indians, including three all-Indian teams, winning their first round matches to reach the quarter-finals.
Saketh Myneni/ Ramkumar Ramanathan pulled off the big upset of the day, ousting the third seeds Ray Ho/ Piotr Matuszewski 7-6 (3), 6-4. Fourth seeds Rithvik Choudary Bollipal/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha and the wildcard team of Parikshit Somani / Manish Sureshkumar also won to set up a quarter-final clash, assuring at least one Indian pair will reach the semi-finals. Sriram Balaji, seeded No 1 in the doubles along with German partner Andre Begemann, and Arjun Kadhe, teaming up with Chinese Taipei’s Yu Hsiou Hsu, also won their matches on Wednesday.