The Indian tennis fans had a reason to rejoice with the teenager Manas Dhamne etching his
maiden ATP Challenger victory amidst the disappointing results by Ramkumar and
Sasikumar Mukund.
Manas wins his maiden ATP Challenger match
Manas Dhamne won his first qualifying round match against Tatsuma Ito at the ATP 75
Internazionali di Tennis Francavilla al Mare in Italy. This is his first win at the ATP
Challenger level. He had received a wild card into this tournament.
Manas (currently ranked 1344) upset the former World No. 60 by a 6-3, 6-1 score in 1 hour
and 16 minutes. Manas won five of the eleven break points he faced, displaying complete
dominance in the second game. This is the first of many for this young player, who definitely
has a lot to give to Indian tennis.
To get into the main draw, the 16-year-old Indian will next take on Alessandro Giannessi, the
No. 2 seed in qualifying, who is currently ranked 315. Although Giannessi will be the crowd
favourite to win the match, the newfound confidence should help Manas overcome this
challenge.
Ramkumar and Sasi Mukund had a disappointing outing
At the ATP 75 Wuxi Challenger, both Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sasikumar Mukund lost
their respective first qualifying matches.
Ramkumar, seeded No. 4, lost to Yusuke Takahashi with a close scoreline of 77
-63 7-5 in 2 hours and 6 minutes.
Similarly, Sasi Mukund endured a gruelling encounter before falling to No. 1 seed Richard
Berankis 5-7,7-6,0-6 in 2 hours and 44 minutes.
This is Sasi’s fourth consecutive first
qualifying match loss since the Challenger Busan.
Aryan gives a walkover
In the action elsewhere in the world, Aryan Shah had to unfortunately hand walkover to this
opponent, Takeru Yuzuki, at the ATP 50 Challenger Santos. He was seeded No. 12 in the
qualification draw
Written By Khushi
