Prashanth shocks fourth seed, smooth start for Jeevan in ITF Futures tournament

Bhopal: N Vijay Sundar Prashanth knocked out German fourth seed Torsten Wietoska in the first round of the USD 15,000 ITF Futures tournament, here today.

Prashanth scored a 6-3 7-6(6) win over Wietoska, who had reached the semifinals last week in New Delhi.

It was a smooth start for top seed Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan as he beat Arjun Kadhe 6-4 6-3 in his first round.

National champion Mohit Mayur Jayaraksh laboured to a 7-6(4) 6-7(5) 7-5 win over Luca Margaroli.

Meanwhile, qualifier Shahikh Abdullah sent packing Ashwin Vijayragavan 2-6 6-4 6-2 to move to the second round.

Ashwin though tasted success in the doubles as he and his fourth seed partner Ramkumar Ramanathan beat Indo-American combine of Ajai Selvaraj and Amrit Narasimhan 7-5 6-3.

Selvaraj's singles campaign has also ended as he lost to 6-7 (5) 3-6 to Jatin Dahiya.

Ashwin and Ramkumar had ended runners-up last week in New Delhi.

Akash Wagh ousted Duck Hee Lee 6-2 6-4 Jatin Dahiya while Chadnrol Sood lost 2-6 6-7 (4) to fellow qualifier Jannis Liniger from Switzerland.

Second seed N Sriram Balaji, last week's finalist, will open his campaign against qualfier Lakshit Sood.

Vishnu Vardhan, who had lost to Balaji in the semifinals, faces wild card Aaditya Tewari in his first round.