Qualifier Sasi Kumar Mukund in pre-quarters of Challenger

Qualfiier Sasi Kumar Mukund sustained his strong game to beat the Chinese Davis Cupper and the former World No.1 junior, Yibing Wu 7-6(4), 6-2 in the first round of the $75,000 Challenger tennis tournament in China on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old Mukund, who has already assured himself of 13 ATP points, including five for qualification, will play eighth seed Filip Peliwo of Canada in the second round.

Third seed Ramkumar Ramanathan edged past fellow Davis Cupper, qualifier Sumit Nagal 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) to set up a pre-quarterfinals against Mohamed Safwat of Egypt.

However, fourth seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran who had reached the final of the last Challenger was beaten in the first round by Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain in straight sets. Qualifier Saketh Myneni also retired after one set against Johan Tatlot of France.

The results:

$75,000 Challenger men, Shenzhen, China
Singles (first round): Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Sumit Nagal 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2); Sasi Kumar Mukund bt Yibing Wu (Chn) 7-6(4), 6-2; Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (Esp) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-3, 6-4; Johan Tatlot (Fra) bt Saketh Myneni 6-0 (retired).

Doubles (pre-quarterfianls): Sanchai Ratiwatana (Tha) & Arjun Kadhe bt Mikhail Elgin (Rus) & Yaraslav Shyla (Blr) 6-3, 6-4.

$25,000 ITF men, Nonthaburi, Thailand
Singles (first round): Karunuday Singh bt Eduardo Agustin Torre (Arg) 6-2, 4-0 (retired); Seong Chan Hong (Kor) bt Siddharth Vishwakarma 7-6(4), 6-2.

$25,000 ITF men, Tay Ninh, Vietnam
Singles (first round): Robert Strombachs (Ger) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-1, 6-4; Kunal Anand bt Aryan Goveas 6-4, 7-6(3); Cheng-Yu Yu (Tpe) bt Niki Poonacha 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Grigoriy Lomakin (Kaz) & Robert Strombachs (Ger) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha & Manish Sureshkumar 6-3, 6-2; Aryan Goveas & Niki Poonacha bt Quoc-Khanh Le & LInh Giang Trinh (Vie) 6-4, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF women, Nonthaburi, Thailand
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Nudnida luangnam & Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (Tha) bt Man Ying Maggie Ng (Hkg) & Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-4, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF women, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
Singles (first round): Shan Yu (Chn) bt Vaidehi Chaudhari 7-5, 6-4.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Britt Geukens & Victoria Kalaitzis (Bel) bt Rutvi Chaudhari & Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-3, 6-2; Wang Ziyu (Chn) & Amber Washington (US) bt Sandy Marti (Sui) & Vibhasree Gowda 6-1, 6-4.