PUNE, February 3, 2020
Indian star Sumit Nagal put up a strong fight against Serbian ace Vicktor Troicki before going down in the singles opening round match at the third edition of Tata Open Maharashtra at Mhalunge Balewadi Stadium on Monday.
India No. 2 Nagal, who took a set away against legendary Roger Federer during his debut Grand Slam match at 2019 US Open, showed immense resistance before going down 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 against the former World No. 12.
Comeback man Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany began his campaign at the ATP 250 event with an impressive 6-3, 6-4 win against last year’s finalist Ivo Karlovic from Croatia.
Twenty-eight year-old Stebe, who has been plagued with numerous injuries that forced him to skip almost all the action between September 2013 and March 2016, dominated the former World No. 14 in the first set. Karlovic, however, tried to gain some momentum with two points before the German wrapped up the set as well as the match.
“My number one priority would be to stay healthy and keep myself away from any major injury. I started off bit slow. I knew I want to focus on my game. That kept me going,” said Stebe, who is making his first appearance in Pune. The World No. 149 will next take on No. 2 seed Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania.
Fifth-seed Yuichi Sugita also made his way into the second round with a convincing 6-3, 6-0 win over Italian ace Thomas Fabbiano. No. 7 seed Salvatore Caruso rallied from a set down to overcome wild card entry Ramkumar Ramanathan of India 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours and 23 minutes.
2⃣ hours 2⃣3⃣ minutes, a battle worth watching till the end! 👊
Watch Salvatore Caruso’s winning point here 📹@atptour | #TOM2020 #AdvantagePune #ATPTour pic.twitter.com/MIeHLMKVur
— Tata Open Maharashtra (@MaharashtraOpen) February 3, 2020
The second day of the India’s premier ATP 250 event, which is organised by Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) in association with Government of Maharashtra, will see legendary Leander Paes in action during his doubles opening round match.
The eight-time Grand Slam doubles champion, who has partnered alongside Australian Mathew Ebden, will face challenge from Divij Sharan and New Zealand’s Artem Sitak. The singles opening round will see two Indians, Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Arjun Kadhe, in action. While, India’s No. 1 Gunneswaran will take on Germany’s Yannick Maden, local boy Kadhe will face Czech player Jiri Vesely.
