PUNE/STARNBERG, February 1, 2022

Italian Stefano Travaglia headlined Tuesday’s first-round action at the fourth edition of the Tata Open Maharashtra beinig held at the Balewadi Stadium in Pune, India. The No. 8 seed of the ATP 250 hard-court tournament celebrated a hard-fought victory over home favourite and wild card entry Ramkumar Ramanathan, winning 7-6(7), 4-6, 6-3.

Both players looked in good touch as they played aggressively in an intense first set. At 4-4, Ramanathan responded well and hit back hard to make it 6-5 before the set went into a tie-break but Travaglia secured the set with his big serves.

The top-ranked Indian took control of the second set with a 4-2 lead. Ramanathan then snatched it quite comfortably  in the end with a brilliant serve to level the scores at 1-1.

However, World No. 93 Travaglia made a strong comeback in the decider to take a 5-3 lead. Serving for the match, the 30-year-old Italian didn’t let the momentum slip to pocket the set as well as the match after two hours and 12 minutes.

Travaglia, a five-time ATP Challenger champion, will next take on India’s Yuki Bhambri.

Sousa rallies past Kadhe

In other action, Portuguese veteran Joao Sousa battled past Indian wild card Arjun Kadhe 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 6-2 in two hours and 26 minutes.

“It was a tough match today against a local player. I knew I was perhaps a little bit better on my level, but it was definitely a tough match after being a set down and a very close second set,” Sousa said. “In the end I was able to hit some good shot to get my level a little bit higher.”

Up next for the former World No. 28 will be third-seeded Italian Gianluca Mager.

Ruusuvuori, Vukic advance

In the bottom half of the draw, No. 6 seed Emil Ruusuvuori edged past Belarusian Egor Gerasimov 6-0, 7-6(11) in one hour and 39 minutes. The 22-year-old from Finland will next face Czech Vit Kopriva, who eliminated Turkey’s Cem Ilkel 6-4, 6-1.

World No. 140 Aleksandar Vukic of Australia rallied from a set down to overcome Hugo Grenier of France 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(4) after two hours and 21 minutes to set a second-round clash against second seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy.

“He’s one of the youngsters who are really trying to crack through. It will be a great match, but I’m feeling good and it will be a good match either way,” said Vukic.

The Daily Wrap presented by @DafanewsIndia is back, as Tanvi Shah reviews the action from Day 2 of #TataOpenMaharashtra 2022 🎾#AdvantagePune #ATPTour #ATP #Tennis | @msltatennis @tatacompanies @atptour pic.twitter.com/oRC7FVGJ7P

— Tata Open Maharashtra (@MaharashtraOpen) February 1, 2022