Key Points
Galarneau dominates Karan Singh 6-4, 6-1 in opening round
Vacherot upsets fourth-seeded Moller in three sets
Ramkumar eliminated in final qualifying round
In the main draw matches that started today, eighth-seeded Alexis Galarneau of Canada took one hour and three minutes to give a lesson on the court to wildcard and 21-year-old Karan Singh 6-4,6-1. The Canadian ranked 170 in the world broke Singh in the very first game of both sets. Even though Singh looked confident in the first set, he went down tamely in the second set, as per a press release from MSLTA.
Winner of the last edition's Maha Open Challenger in Pune, Valentin Vacherot of Monaco, who went as high as 110 rank last year, is currently ranked 201. He picked up from where he left off last year, to create the first upset of the tournament as he toppled fourth-seeded Elmer Moller of Denmark, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in just over 2 hours to make it to the second round.
Dalibor Svrcina of the Czech Republic, a regular on the Indian Futures Tour, saved two match points to come from 4-5 down in the third set to register a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over August Holmgren of Denmark in the longest match of the day, lasting 2 hours 26 minutes.
In the final qualifying rounder, seventh-seeded Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium prevailed against Davis Cupper Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-0 in a 2 hour 3 minutes to qualify for the main draw. Ramkumar showed glimpses of brilliance in the second set, but went down in the third set as he could not maintain the same tempo.
Sixth-seeded Ilia Simakin of Russia ousted former winner of the Maha Open ATP Tour, Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic, winning 7-5, 6-1. Meanwhile, another Russian Petr Bar Biryukov also qualified for the main draw. As did Michael Geerts, also of Belgium, ninth-seeded Masamichi Imamura and Hiroki Moriya of Japan. Results: Main Draw: First Round:
Valentin Vacherot (MON) bt [4]Elmer Moller(DEN) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4[8] Alexis Galarneau (CAN) bt [WC] Karan Singh(IND) 6-4,6-1
Final Qualifying Round:
[3] Michael Geerts (BEL) bt [8]Justin Engel(GER) 7-6(4), 6-2[9] Masamichi Imamura (JPN) bt [4] Blake Ellis (AUS) 6-1, 6-4[6] Ilia Simakin bt [10] Jiri Vesely (CZE) 7-5, 6-1[7] Kimmer Coppejans (BEL) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-0Petr Bar Biryukov bt [11] Kris Van Wyk (RSA) 6-3, 6-4Hiroki Moriya (JPN) bt [12] Matthew Dellavedova (AUS)
Doubles: First Round:
Jay Clarke(GBR) /Jurij Rodionov(AUT) bt Enzo Couacaud (FRA)/ Rio Noguchi (JPN) 6-3, 5-7, 12-10.