India's top junior, 17-year-old Yuki Bhambri from Delhi struggled initially before progressing to the second round of the singles qualifying in the $400,000 Aircel Chennai Open tennis tournament, on Saturday.
On a day when Prakash Amritraj (ranked 212) advanced with a victory over compatriot Vishnu Vardhan, Bhambri took time to settle down after a tough first set against fellow-countryman Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan before winning 7-5, 6-3.
The results (qualifying):
First round:
Prakash Amritraj (India) bt Vishnu Vardhan (India) 7-5, 6-3;
Yuki Bhambri (India) bt Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (India) 7-5, 6-4;
Dustin Brown (Jamaica) bt Todd Widom (US) 6-4, 6-3;
Marsel Ilhan (Turkey) bt Sanam Singh (India) 7-5, 3-6, 6-2;
James Ward (Britain) bt Karan Rastogi (India) 6-2, 6-4;
Ilya Marchenko (Ukraine) bt Denis Gremelmayr (Germany) 6-4, 6-2;
Peter Polansky (Canada) bt Rohan Gajjar (India) 6-3, 7-6 (8);
Lars Poerschke (Germany) bt Paul Capdeville (Chile) 6-4, 4-6, 6-1;
Riccardo Ghedin (Italy) bt Matthias Bachinger (Germany) 6-2, 4-2 (retd);
Noam Okun (Israel) bt Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (India) 6-2, 6-3;
Louk Sorensen (Ireland) bt Benjamin Balleret (Montcourt) 6-0, 2-6, 6-2;
Rik de Voest (South Africa) bt George Bastl (Switzerland) 6-2, 7-5;
Jan Minra (Czech Republic) bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (India) 6-4, 6-2;
Tatsuma Ito (Japan) bt Alex Bogomolov Jr (US) 7-6 (1), 6-3;
Donald Young (US) bt Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi (Pakistan) 6-4, 6-4.
