Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) Fourth-seeded Indian Rohan Gajjar, finalist in the last ITF tournament here a month ago, looked rusty and was upstaged in the first round this time around by compatriot N.Vijay Sundar Prashanth, 6-7(5), 4-6, in the $10,000 tournament at the DLTA complex Tuesday.
Gajjar looked listless as he frittered away break opportunities in both the sets. Prashanth, on the other hand, came out with stunning returns of serve and clean passes to mount Gajjar’s errors.

Prashanth, who had beaten Gajjar when the two met the only time at the qualifying stage of an ITF tournament in 2007, served well to force a first-set tie-break, which he dominated.

In the second set, Gajjar snatched a break in the seventh game only to drop his serve in the very next. He was again broken in the tenth game and the match was gone.

Sixth-seeded Ranjeeth Virali Murugesan of India recovered from a set loss and a twisted ankle, to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 against Britain’s Kyle Brassington.

The Briton dominated the first set with his big serve and powerful grounstrokes that left Ranjeeth groping. Brassington had an early break and that was good enough to take the first set. In the last game of the set, the Indian took a tumble hitting a forehand and sprained his left ankle that needed to be strapped.

Ranjeeth made it a set-all, gaining the decisive break in the sixth game.

The Briton literally threw away the third set, winning just a game, and the Indian closed out the set and the match in nearly two hours.

In the other first round matches, American Shane La Porte demolished Indian Vikram Reddy 6-0, 6-2 while Britain’s Max Jones dispatched Ankit Sachdeva 6-1, 6-4. Fifth seed Peter Lucassen of the Netherlands beat South Korean Hyun Soo Lim 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.