ATP Challenger: Apex seed Somdev faces emerging Ramanathan again within two months

Chennai: Top seed Somdev Devvarman will be tested for the second time in a month in an ATP controlled event when he takes on rising player Ramkumar Ramanathan in the first round of the ATP Challenger tennis championship here on Monday.

Somdev was drawn to play Ramanathan once again after they last met a month ago in the first round of the Aircel Chennai Open, where the latter prevailed over the top seed in three sets.

The winner of the first round match will play the winner of the match between Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and a qualifier.

Yuki Bhambri is the seventh seed and drawn to meet Hung Liang-Chi (TPE), while his Davis Cup teammate Saketh Myneni will meet Safwat Mohamed of Egypt in the first round.

The fourth wild card entrant, Sriram Balaji will meet a qualifier. Meanwhile, the qualifying event commenced here today and top seed Hiroki Kondo of Japan and second seed Marek Semjan of Slovakia scored comfortable victories over Ajai Slevaraj and Kunal Anand of India, respectively.

Some encounters produced interesting duels and best match of the day was played by seventh seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who was on a comeback trail. He swept past Ashwin Vijaragavan with a display of powerful serve and ground strokes.

Mukund Sasikumar, on the other hand, outplayed Vignesh Veerabadran in straight sets. Vijayant Malik, Vijay Sundar Prashanth and debutant Rahul Robinson had facile victories.

Much was expected from the match between Karunuday Singh, seeded eighth and the local lad, Mohit Mayur. Karunuday got past Mohit 6-3 7-6(3).