Indian Davis Cup stars fail to clear first hurdle

Indian Davis Cup team members Mukund, Ramanathan, and Singh knocked out of Chennai Open ATP Challenger in first round.

Sasikumar Mukund, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Karan Singh — members of the Indian Davis Cup team which beat Togo 4-0 in a World Group I Playoff recently — were knocked out of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger in the first round at the SDAT tennis stadium here on Tuesday.

Local boys Mukund and Ramkumar, and Haryana’s Karan were given wildcards since they were unable to make the cut on the basis of their ATP Rankings for the first of the four straight Challenger Tour events in the country. India will also host Challenger events in New Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru in the next three weeks.

World No. 500 Karan went down 3-6, 3-6 to Frenchman Kyrian Jacquet, World No. 273, in an hour and 13 minutes. World No. 400 Ramkumar suffered a 3-6, 5-7 defeat at the hands of Britain’s Jay Clarke, currently ranked 266th.

World No. 394 Mukund was eliminated following a 3-6, 7-6(3), 1-6 loss to World No. 333 Alexey Zakharov of Russia.

The results (first round): Singles: Billy Harris (GBr) bt Eric Vanshelboim (Ukr) 7-5, 6-2; Lloyd Harris (SA) bt Yurii Dzhavakian (Ukr) 6-3, 5-7, 6-0; Elias Ymer (Swe) bt Duje Ajdukovic (Cro) 6-2, 6-7, 6-2; Timofey Skatov (Kaz) bt Hynek Barton (Cze) 6-4, 6-4; Kyrian Jacquet (Fra) bt Karan Singh 6-3, 6-3; Jay Clarke (GBr) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-3, 7-5; Aslan Karatsev (Rus) bt Corentin Denolly (Fra) 7-6(4), 6-4; Alexey Zakharov (Rus) bt Sasikumar Mukund 6-3, 6-7, 6-1; Rio Noguchi (Jpn) bt Kimmer Coppejans (Bel) 7-5, 3-1 (retd.); Michael Geerts (Bel) bt Maxim Zhukov 7-2, 7-6(5); Dalibor Svrcina (Cze) bt Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg (Fra) 5-7, 7-6, 6-0.