Yuki Bhambri steps closer to Australian Open main draw

Melbourne: Yuki Bhambri kept alive his hopes of making the Australian Open singles main draw after scoring a straight sets victory over higher-ranked Yoshihito Nishioka in the qualifying event, here on Thursday.

The 314th-ranked Indian dispatched Nishioka 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 in one hour and 40 minutes in the second round contest.

Yuki saved as many as seven break chances on his serve against the Japanese, who is ranked 165 in the world. The 22-year-old had also ousted 129th ranked and 15th seed Evgeny Donskoy from Russian in the opening round.

Yuki is now up against America's Chase Buchanan, who knocked out Croatia's 32nd seed Mate Delic 4-6 6-1 6-4 in his second round.

It will be the first contest between Yuki and Buchanan, who is ranked 179.

Somdev Devvarman and Ramkumar Ramanathan had bowed out in the first round of the qualifiers.