Manas goes down fighting to top seed Harris

Wild card Manas Dhamne battles top seed Billy Harris in Pune Challenger, while other Indians fall in singles.

Wild card Manas Dhamne went down fighting 4-6, 4-6 to top seed Billy Harris of Britain in the first round of the Pune Metropolitan $160,000 Maha Open Challenger tennis tournament at the Balewadi Stadium on Tuesday.

Despite the big difference in ranking, 793 to 110, and experience on the professional tour, the 17-year-old Manas engaged the 30-year-old Briton in a lively contest.

Eventually, it boiled down to the big serve of Harris, who had played the final on Sunday in Delhi, and his ability to convert the break points. He had nine aces to one by Manas, and capitalised on five of seven break points, to two of seven break points by the young Indian.

Harris won 79 points to 70 by Manas, and will get to play a qualifier in the second round.

The other Indian wild card in action, Aryan Shah managed to win four games against sixth seed Brandon Holt of the USA. That was the end of the Indian challenge in singles in the highly competitive field.

Khumoyun Sultanov of Uzbekistan knocked out the third seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia in three sets, to set up a pre-quarterfinal with another Aussie Bernard Tomic.

The champion of the last two Challengers in Chennai and Delhi, Kyrian Jacquet of France eased into the second round by dropping four games to Rio Noguchi of Japan. He will next face fifth seed Ugo Blanchet of France.