Arjun scalps second seeded Ramanathan , Prajnesh , Mukund make round two of KPIT -MSLTA ATP Challenger

Pune, November 20:   Pune boy and wildcard Arjun Kadhe justified the wildcard given to him by the Organisors as he upset second seeded Ramkumar Ramanathan to enter the second round  of the main draw at  the KPIT MSLTA ATP Challenger organized by MSLTA and PMDTA  and played at the Mhalunge-Balewadi Tennis Complex here  today.

In  a match lasting 1 hour and 3 minutes local boy and wildcard   Arjun Kadhe ranked 370 upset  off colour second seeded   Ramkumar  Ramanathan   6-3, 6-2 to record his biggest win of the year and make it to the round of sixteen  . It was the first meeting for Arjun and Ramkumar at the Challenger level, as both players have played more than two dozen times as juniors and ITF events in the past.

Kadhe looked solid from the start breaking the fast serving Ramkumar in the 6^th game of the first set and in the 5^th and 7^th games in the second set.

In another upset of the day  former top 100 player Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan now ranked a lowly 186 and semifinalist at Bengaluru last week upset fifth seeded  Marc Polmans  of Australia    6-2, 6-4 

Another wildcard  21 year old Sasi Kumar Mukund  also justified the wildcard allotted to him as he as took out his senior Saketh Myneni  6-4, 7-6(1)  in a 1 hour 28 minute thriller  in  much awaited match ,  Mukund who was scheduled to play  Saketh in the quarterfinals last week in Bengaluru has to pull out  in warm ups itself due to a back spasm. 

 Winner of the Bengaluru Challenger   and former finalist here Prajnesh Gunneswaran started the event where he finished last week playing fluent tennis to stop Tsung-Hua Yang of Chinese Taipei  6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour and 31 minutes  and become the third Indian player to make the second round.

In the other match of interest for India top seeded Radu Albot of Moldova brought out all his experience to snub a fighting   Sumit Nagal  7-5, 6-2 in 1 hour 29 minutes.